There’s One Last Chance To Hold John Brennan Accountable For Russiagate

The CIA recently released a damning Tradecraft Review that shreds the credibility of the Obama-ordered Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) — the report that famously concluded Russia had interfered in the 2016 election to help Donald Trump. Much of the attention has focused on the discrepancy between the findings of this new review and what former CIA Director John Brennan told Congress in 2017. Indeed, multiple credible reports suggest Brennan is now under investigation for perjury.

One of the most glaring examples is Brennan’s sworn testimony that the Steele dossier — a collection of fabricated claims about Donald Trump funded by the Clinton campaign — “was not in any way used as a basis for the ICA.” The new review makes clear this was false. It was Brennan himself who pushed to include the dossier in the assessment, despite its complete lack of credibility. Brennan’s apparent goal was to launder Clinton campaign lies into the bloodstream of U.S. intelligence and, from there, into the media.

And it worked. The moment it was leaked in January 2017 that the dossier had made it into the ICA, it was treated as gospel. The media, which had previously hesitated to touch it, now embraced it with both hands, claiming that if it was good enough for the CIA and part of an official intelligence assessment, it must be legitimate. From that point forward, the Steele dossier became central to the Russia collusion narrative, despite being a complete fabrication. So it’s no wonder Brennan tried to cover his tracks by lying to Congress about his role in elevating it.

However, there’s a major problem — one that most reporting has completely missed. Under federal law, there is a five-year statute of limitations for perjury. That means anything Brennan said under oath in 2017 cannot be charged. Legally, it is categorically impossible to prosecute Brennan for lying to Congress about the ICA or the Steele dossier.