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The FBI has reportedly launched criminal investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey after a referral from current CIA chief John Ratcliffe.
While the full nature of the alleged investigations are unclear, a source told CNN the probe concerned the potential of false statements to Congress. Sources told Fox News the FBI believed the pair of Obama-era officials had engaged in an unspecified “conspiracy.”
“I am clueless about what it is exactly that they may be investigating me for,” Brennan said Wednesday on MSNBC, where he is a contributor, adding that he hadn’t been contacted by the FBI, DOJ, or CIA.
The Justice Department told CNN it does not comment on ongoing investigations. The Independent has contacted the CIA and a representative of Comey for comment.
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President Donald Trump was asked Wednesday about Comey and Brennan reportedly being under criminal investigation related to the Trump–Russia probe.
"Well, I know nothing about it other than what I read today," Trump said. "But I will tell you, I think they're very dishonest people. I think they're crooked as hell. And, maybe they have to pay a price for that."
"I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people," the president added.
"So whatever happens, happens."
The reported investigation comes less than a week after the CIA publicly released a June memo to Ratcliffe, which criticized intelligence officials’ handling of allegations in late 2016 that Russia aspired to assist the first Trump presidential campaign.
The CIA review, which delved into the creation of a December 2016 intelligence community assessment on the Russia allegations, accused Brennan of pushing to include information from a Democrat-funded dossier in the assessment, even though the CIA official later testified in Congress he did not want the information included.
Information from the dossier was ultimately included in an annex to the assessment, which noted its claims only had “limited corroboration” and were not used in the review’s ultimate analytic conclusions.
The partially redacted CIA review does not mention Comey in any of its public portions, though Ratcliffe suggested the memo concerned him as well.
The current CIA director wrote in a July 2 post on X that the document showed Brennan, Comey, and others had “manipulated intelligence and silenced career professionals — all to get Trump.”
The handling of the Russia allegations, which eventually prompted an FBI investigation into the Trump campaign, have already been subject to numerous reviews.
The Justice Department’s inspector general concluded in 2019 that FBI officials had sufficient reason to open an investigation into potential ties between the Trump campaign and Russia and had acted without bias, though it noted major errors in the process, including around an application to wiretap a former Trump campaign adviser.
A special counsel appointed during Trump’s first term found no wrongdoing in the handling of intelligence about potential Russia links, though it ended in the indictment of three people, including a former FBI lawyer who pleaded guilty to falsifying information.
Comey, a longtime subject of criticism from President Trump, was interviewed in May by the Secret Service, after he posted on social media, and then took down, an image of seashells he saw on a beach spelling out “8647.”
Trump officials have argued the message was a coded threat calling for someone to “86,” or eliminate, Trump, the 47th president.
