Ex-CIA Director John Brennan sues administration over investigation records

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan sued the Trump medication Wednesday, demanding a tribunal bid that would necessitate officials to sphere records from investigations that helium says are targeting him for “what amounts to phantom transgression conduct.”

The lawsuit says the records would shed airy connected the motivations of authorities officials who are investigating Brennan and would signifier the ground of defence efforts to disregard immoderate eventual indictment connected grounds that the lawsuit constitutes a vindictive prosecution.

Such an argument, his lawyers said, would beryllium supported by the much than 100 verbal oregon written statements that President Donald Trump has made since 2017 lambasting Brennan and by the Republican president’s directives to his Justice Department to initiate investigations of Brennan “without respect to factual oregon ineligible justification.”

“To afloat see those motions, the reviewing justice would request to scrutinize the motivations of the Justice Department officials who directed, oversaw, oregon undertook those actions to find whether they violated Director Brennan’s rights, and specifically whether they were motivated by a tendency to vindictively prosecute him arsenic an enactment of retribution,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote successful the suit filed successful national tribunal successful Washington.

Without an order, the suit contends, the records are astatine hazard of being mislaid oregon intentionally deleted.

The suit amounts to a preemptive onslaught of sorts connected months-long investigations into Brennan and different perceived adversaries of the president, and represents different effort by Brennan’s ineligible squad to dependable the alarm connected inquiries they judge are portion of a signifier of politically motivated probes driven by the White House. It asserts that Brennan is being targeted successful a vindictive and selective mode arising from Trump’s “obsession with punishing him for his lawful behaviour arsenic CIA Director and for his constitutionally protected disapproval of the President and the President’s policies.

“That is the crushed helium is being singled retired for probe of concocted theories of transgression activity, and that volition beryllium the ascendant crushed for immoderate transgression charges resulting from that investigation. That is besides wherefore Director Brennan volition person an highly beardown ground to situation those charges arsenic the merchandise of vindictive and selective prosecution,” the suit says.

Investigators based successful Florida are examining whether Brennan made a mendacious connection to Congress successful 2023 related to an appraisal by quality agencies documenting Russian interference successful the 2016 statesmanlike election, erstwhile Trump defeated Democrat Hillary Clinton. The different probe aims to find whether former instrumentality enforcement and quality officials conspired implicit the past decennary to undermine Trump, including during the people of the Russian interference investigation.

Brennan has denied immoderate wrongdoing.

The ailment seeks a tribunal bid requiring the preservation of each authorities records applicable to the investigations, including emails, calendar entries and communications — whether nationalist oregon backstage — from Trump oregon different White House officials astir the inquiries and efforts to beforehand them.

“Given these beardown indicia of vindictiveness, Director Brennan expects that helium volition forcefully situation immoderate eventual indictment arsenic the merchandise of an unconstitutionally vindictive and selective prosecution,” the suit says, adding that the justice presiding implicit immoderate transgression lawsuit would look to those records for a glimpse of the government’s motives.

The suit says there’s a “very existent risk” that the requested communications volition not beryllium disposable by the clip immoderate indictment is brought, either due to the fact that of exertion changes that marque deletion of records much regular oregon automatic oregon due to the fact that of a Trump medication wont of “failing to observe their ineligible work to support specified records.”

“Given the government’s questionable caller past with respect to its grounds preservation and different ineligible obligations, however, Director Brennan has a well-founded interest that those records and communications volition not beryllium preserved until specified clip arsenic the tribunal tin reappraisal them for grounds of unconstitutional vindictiveness,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote.

The suit names arsenic defendants Trump and different apical officials from his administration, including acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House main of unit Susie Wiles and CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

Other defendants see Jason Reding Quiñones, the U.S. lawyer for the Southern District of Florida, and Joe diGenova, a Reagan medication authoritative who returned to the Justice Department successful April to service arsenic a peculiar counsellor to the lawyer wide and assistance oversee the investigations.

Brennan’s lawyer, Ken Wainstein, wrote successful December to the main justice of the national tribunal successful Florida asking that the Justice Department beryllium prevented from steering investigations related to Brennan to a “favored” Trump medication judge, Aileen Cannon, who successful 2024 dismissed the classified documents prosecution against Trump.

Asked astir Brennan’s lawsuit, Justice Department spokeswoman Emily Covington said successful a statement, “While we cannot remark connected the existence, oregon deficiency thereof, of an investigation, it is surely affluent that John Brennan is accusing anyone of a ‘retribution campaign.’”

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Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer successful Washington contributed to this report.