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House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan formally referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Department of Justice on October 21, 2025, asking federal prosecutors to examine whether Brennan knowingly lied during his transcribed congressional interview in May 2023. The referral is not political theater — it is a direct challenge based on newly declassified materials that Republicans say contradict Brennan’s sworn statements.
Jordan’s letter lays out a stark accusation: Brennan denied CIA involvement with the Steele dossier while the documentary record shows a CIA-authored annex and decision-making at the highest levels to include dossier material in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment. Republicans argue those contradictions are more than mere memory lapses; they are alleged willful falsehoods before Congress that deserve a full and impartial legal review.
The Justice Department now holds the ball. Reporters note DOJ has discretion to open prosecutions or to decline, and this referral arrives on the heels of other government reviews and referrals earlier this year that targeted the same circle of intelligence officials. The public deserves to know whether the institutions that once swore to defend the Constitution were weaponized to target political rivals, and whether anyone who misled Congress will be held to account.
Let’s be blunt: for far too long, senior intelligence officials were treated as above the law while hardworking Americans watched careers and reputations get destroyed by politicized leaks and failed narratives. Conservatives demanding accountability are not seeking revenge — we’re demanding the same rule of law for powerful bureaucrats that every American must live under. It’s time the system works the same way whether you’re a postal worker or a former CIA director.
Some of Brennan’s oldest statements from 2017 are technically beyond the statute of limitations, which the referral candidly acknowledges, but Jordan’s team points to a pattern that includes the 2023 transcribed interview—testimony that remains within prosecutorial reach. That distinction matters; it’s why the committee carefully framed the referral around the most recent, actionable statements.
Brennan has publicly pushed back, claiming he “knows nothing” about any politically based DOJ probe and dismissing the inquiries as partisan. Those protests only sharpen the need for an independent, evidence-driven review by the Justice Department so Americans can see the facts for themselves and not rely on partisan spin.
This is a moment of consequence for the DOJ and for the country. Attorney General Pam Bondi and career prosecutors must show they will pursue the truth wherever it leads; anything less is a continuation of the two-tier justice system that conservatives have decried for years. If the law was meant to protect the powerful, then we’ve squandered the republic — and the American people deserve better.
