Below is my column in the Hill on the “wanderlust” of former CIA Director John Brennan and how it might be coming to an end with new disclosures on his role in the origins of the Russian collusion investigation. It is a tragic, almost Shakespearean ending, for a once idealistic kid who joined the CIA to experience the world. However, it is a story all-too-familiar for this city.
Here is the column:
In 1980, a graduate student at the University of Texas at Austin saw an ad for the Central Intelligence Agency on a bus. John Brennan decided to apply, thinking that such a job would satisfy his “wanderlust.”
This month, the “wanderlust” of John Brennan seems to be coming to an end, as the former CIA director stands accused of false testimony regarding the Russian collusion investigation.
Ironically, Brennan was first selected for his honesty — at least in part. During his entry polygraph, Brennan admitted that he had voted for the communist party candidate for president in 1976. He was impressed that the agency took him anyway.
That honest young man seems like a faint and tragic echo of the man today. When Obama picked Brennan to be the CIA director, he had become the ultimate Democratic insider and loyalist. And it would be choosing loyalty over honesty that would prove Brennan’s undoing.
Newly declassified information contradicts Brennan’s testimony before Congress on the origins of the now-debunked Russian collusion conspiracy theory. There is a particular focus on the intelligence community assessment commissioned by President Barack Obama in December 2016, which suggested that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump.
Obama ordered the assessment after a prior assessment found no evidence of collusion or influence on the election in Trump’s favor. But Obama’s White House effectively quashed that finding from seasoned CIA analysts. To create a new version, Brennan handpicked new analysts, who effectively flipped the earlier finding on its head without any credible basis in the record.
The new assessment relied, to a significant degree, on the Steele dossier, a widely discredited report paid for by Hillary Clinton’s campaign that contained unfounded allegations about Trump.
In testimony on May 23, 2017, Brennan claimed that the Steele dossier “wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community Assessment that was done.” In short, Brennan dismissed any reliance on the dossier.
Yet in the material now declassified, Brennan is shown not just discussing the dossier but insisting upon its inclusion in the new assessment Obama had requested. Indeed, he expressly overruled the CIA’s two most senior Russia experts, who said it “did not meet even the most basic tradecraft standards.”
Analysts were appalled by the use of the Steele dossier and complained that it “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgment.” One CIA analyst told investigators that “[Brennan] refused to remove it, and when confronted with the dossier’s main flaws, [Brennan] responded, ‘Yes, but doesn’t it ring true?’”Brennan expressly ordered its inclusion in the assessment. It would appear not just in an annex but in the main body of the assessment.
The timeline here is important. In July 2016, Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The original Russia investigation — funded by Clinton’s campaign — was launched days after this briefing. The resulting Steele Dossier’s funding was hidden as a legal expense by the Clinton campaign’s general counsel, Marc Elias.
So Brennan and the Obama Administration knew in advance about the planned political hit job. Yet, only months later, Brennan would intervene to force the dossier’s inclusion in version 2.0 of the intelligence assessment. Unnamed officials then leaked false information to the media about non-existent intelligence implicating Trump.
Keep in mind that Obama’s ordering of the new assessment was occurring at the very end of his term. There was a rush to complete the report before Trump took office after defeating Hillary Clinton. The effort seeded the Russian collusion hoax that would consume much of Trump’s first term.
In other words, it worked. However, it required the involvement of John Brennan, as well as then-FBI Director James Comey.
As time went on, Brennan continued to deny prior knowledge of the dossier. He would later become a paid contributor for MSNBC and, in 2018, insisted that he first heard “just snippets about” the dossier in the “late summer of 2016.”
As an MSNBC regular, Brennan accused Trump of “treason,” to the delight of the network hosts and viewers. (He later tried to insist that, when he called Trump’s actions “nothing short of treasonous,” he did not actually mean that Trump had “committed treason.”)
Whatever professional integrity Brennan had left after that, he set it aside in joining more than 50 former intelligence officials in signing a now-infamous letter dismissing the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 presidential election as likely “Russian disinformation.”
Joining him on the letter was former Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who says that he has now “lawyered up” in anticipation of potential criminal allegations. The laptop, of course, was later found to be authentic and incriminating for Hunter Biden.
Back in 2016 and in the years that followed, this must have seemed to Brennan like just another CIA operation with “plausible deniability.” After all, he knew that he had the Biden administration and the media watching his back. Of course, the public would ultimately reject these hit jobs, not only reelecting Trump but also giving Republicans full control of Congress.
Brennan may be protected from perjury charges by the five-year statute of limitations. However, he is likely to be called again before Congress and asked the same questions. Even if he is not criminally charged, his past statements will remain an indictment of his role in history.
What is now clear is that high-level officials dismissed intelligence and evidence in order to create and spread the Russian collusion conspiracy as widely as they could. Their politicization of intelligence was raw and wrong. It succeeded only because it was an “all-hands-on-deck” effort, from the Obama White House to the CIA, the FBI, and the media.
The rise and fall of John Brennan has the makings of an all-too-familiar Beltway tragedy. People do not lose their idealism in this city in grand moments of corruption. It starts with small lies that steadily reduce your resistance until the biggest lies become happenstance. It can create a type of self-deception as one treats lies as a moral option for the sake of the greater good.
In “A Man for All Seasons,” Sir Thomas More is asked by his loving daughter Meg to sign a false affidavit to save his own life. More tells her, “When a man takes an oath, he’s holding his own self in his own hands like water, and if he opens his fingers then, he needn’t hope to find himself again.”
In Washington, power tends to loosen fingers over time, and the truth drips out to the point that little recognizable remains. That is the true tragedy.
For Brennan, what began as a young man’s wanderlust ended in a quagmire of contradictions and deceit.
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro professor of public interest law at George Washington University and the author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”
An “Anonymous” poster has corrupted and attempted to take over the comments section to this excellent article, much like Obongo, Brennan, Comey, etc. have corrupted and attempted to take over our country’s government.
Just point and laugh at her, she’s a freaking joke, and losers like her can’t stand ridicule. Same with “George” who loves the sound of her own voice, talks a lot, but never says anything.
‘People do not lose their idealism in this city in grand moments of corruption. It starts with small lies that steadily reduce your resistance until the biggest lies become happenstance. It can create a type of self-deception as one treats lies as a moral option for the sake of the greater good.’
Excellent piece, and the above is a perfect metaphor for what the entire modern left has snowballed into. Truly astonishing.
Yes, I high-lighted the same paragraph. Holds true for Fauci and gang as well. TDS has a fatality rate. Maybe not in the true sense, but a death to personal integrity and virtue which makes looking in the mirror and family and friends knowing you are scum unbearable…
Resipa loquitur. Corruption is corruption, regardless of who did the corrupting, and once found requires addressing even if late.
Sadly, I do not think anyone will do actual jail time. However, with the evidence we have now, and will be coming, America will see and know to what level these people acted against the will of the people. While it would be nice to see them all in orange jump suits perhaps it is better for them to all be known for their treason like acts to undermine the American Republic. Namely Obama.
Sadly? Why should jail even be an option, they committed no crimes. No convictions, just baseless allegations.
Hahahahaha!!! You’re freaking hilarious!! You’re really paid to post this kind of garbage? Not much, I hope, you’re not worth anything at all.
The greatest of all tragedies eclipsed by a massage parlor Madame Maxwell.
Time to shutter all massage parlors.
We know they belong in jail. Getting them there will require some creative crimminal charges due to the perjury SOL having expired.
No, we do not know that. Creative, you mean make new laws, twist existing ones to fit your warped imaginings.
That is actually what Dems do. See the Trump 34 “convictions.”
Thank you, point made.
Hahahahaha!! You mean like the RUSSIA RUSSIA RUSSIA hoax? You’re such a freaking loser.
Someone needs to go to prison for all of this. I have a list if anyone is interested.
And how has Elias not been disbarred?
Not interested. Maybe if you put your self on it. The crime? Stupidity.
Hahahahaha, more deep thoughts from the biggest loser on this comment section. How much did someone waste paying you for this comment? 25 cents?
John Brennan, Communist, was not qualified to be in the position of CIA Director, according to several former CIA staff. He was vengeful against those in the CIA etc he did not like. He is a Liar. He deserves, if charged and convicted to go to a Hard Core Jail, and rot in it for what he and his associates have done and are doing to this country. There are a number of CIA former staff have published articles on John Brennan, refer to them
So what is the qualification for director? Hint. Its a political position.
CIA Directors Hayden and Clapper, as well as Brennan, famously lied to Congress, and thus the American people. The late.great Sen. Feinstein famously caught Hayden out in his lies. Why is prevarication the policy in that job?
Hayden had the nerve to warn about the dangers of politicizing intelligence, in Foreign Affairs this month.
Hayden better be careful, if puts one toe over the line in criticizing Trump this time around, they will prosecute him and he will be going to jail. It boggles the mind that people like him don’t realize how much legal jeopardy that they’re under, then do the smart thing and just shut up.
“John Brennan, Communist, was not qualified to be in the position of CIA Director”
Exactly. In spite of what Turley wrote, I see very little moral or ethical difference between the young Marxist Brennan cynically joining the CIA to indulge his travel obsession (if he wasn’t already planning an actual treasonous betrayal of US interests at that point), and the older version manufacturing lies to sabotage a President elected by the People. Both versions put their own interests ahead of those of the People they swore to serve. The older Brennan version should be arraigned, tried, and if (when) convicted be severely punished (I generally have reservations about the death penalty, but this case could be one of the exceptions).
Then-CIA Director “Brennan briefed former President Obama on Hillary Clinton’s “plan” to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia . . .” (JT)
Putin uses Russia’s spy agencies, the FSB and SVR, to destroy his political opposition.
Their tactics include: surveillance and harassment, concocting and spreading false “news” reports, cyberattacks to smear the opposition, subversion of the legal system, sabotaging opposition candidacies, lawfare based on false intelligence reports, intimidation of the opposition’s family, friends, and colleagues, feeding patent falsehoods to a pliant media.
That’s what tyrants do.
Oops. Did I mix the countries, presidents, and spy agencies?
You left out the part about falling out of windows, which billary is good at save the windows.
One of your best columns. I haven’t read a better summary.
I recently ran into John Brennan at my local supermarket. He was carrying one of those baskets that hurried shoppers use for a few essential items. He is much bigger than I envisioned him to be from his TV spots. Wearing his black suit, white shirt, and dark tie, he may have just come from a CNN studio. John walked quickly from one aisle to another, and his eyes darted left and right like he was not just in a hurry but alone in an uncomfortable position. I spotted him from a distance, and as he walked by me, our eyes locked, and I said, “Hello, John,” to which he seemed startled, cracked a brief smile, nodded, and continued on.
Given the brief bio in Turley’s account today, Brennan must understand the level of betrayal he succumbed to in return for a transient position of power. In other words, he must be smart enough to know what’s coming and why. Will he flip? My guess is no, that he is too committed to some perverted concept of reality. He likely believes his own malarky and thinks of himself as a savior.
In my estimation, the hero of this story, when its final chapter is written, will be Sally Yates, the acting AG, when the infamous meeting at the WH occurred in which Brennan, Comey, Rice, Yates, and Obama decided to topple our government. Sally was never part of this cabal but had to be there because she was the acting AG at the time and was needed to guard the henhouse. Sally may have been, and is, a diehard liberal and lefty, but she didn’t sign on for the kind of skullduggery forced upon her by the likes of Brennan and company. Here’s hoping “my friend” Brennan gets to do his shopping in the prison commissary sooner rather than later.
Heroes have to do something heroic. Did Yates do anything to stop or hinder this plot? She refused to support Trump’s Executive Order requiring delayed admission of nationals of certain countries, till they could be properly vetted, so we know she knew how to take a public stand against something she thought was wrong.
But not the plot against Trump.
Mike: You’re absolutely correct. I meant in no way to excuse or otherwise forgive Yates for her participation. What I intended to convey was the fact that of all the people present at the WH meeting, she was not there, as far as we know, because she was an active party to the conspiracy but, instead, because they needed her there as cover under her acting title of AG. As such, she may have been more of an observer than a participant although she is in the conspiracy like the rest of them. So, when she sits down with her lawyers after she receives a subpoena, they likely will tell her what she already knows as well as they, which is, COOPERATE or you’ll go down with the rest of these folks like Brennan and Comey. It’s a standard technique (believe me, I know) to line up all the defendants in a conspiracy and give their lawyers the same blurb: you are either on the bus on under it – it’s your choice but hurry, this deal may be open to only one or two people and you don’t want to lose out. You know what the others will say about you, so why not jump the line and get a head start? It works most of the time. As far as I can tell, Yates has had no predisposition to this stuff and so she may be a good candidate for the “Sammy-the-Bull” award when this mob goes to the slammer.
JJC,
Very interesting analysis. I too am wondering if anyone will flip and give testimony. Along with the declassifed documents, reportedly there are a number of whistleblowers who are willing to testify. This is turning into the biggest scandal of the century. The lengths these people went to, to conspire against the will of the American people is shocking.
Exactly. This was not a bank robbery where you hide the loot somewhere and take your punishment. These people made rational choices to topple the Trump presidency and there could be no mistaking the objective here as the principals suppressed the truth and conjured up falsehoods as part of their strategy. The people want accountability and that means getting to the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. These are not mobsters willing to go to jail for their evil deeds. No, they are used to power, influence, money, and the finer things in life. Those are all in short supply at the local Supermax and so, one by one by one they will spill their guts (a legal expression) to get out from under this growling beast that’s coming for them called Lady Justice. She may be blind but she ain’t stupid.
“wondering if anyone will flip and give testimony”
That might depend on whether we are now at the top of the conspiracy food chain with Obama and Brennan, or whether they in turn had superiors pulling their strings – superiors who might yet have ways to inspire great fear in their subordinates.
It is getting to that dangerous point where if the Government shall not cleanse itself then the People must.
We started that process by voting in the past election and setting the new Administration up to do that imperative task.
If it fails for any reason then I suggest that the task again falls to the People to ensure that it does get done.
This is not a Democrat-Republican thing….it is about the very existence of our form of justice where the Government is subservient to the People.
At some point the People are going to require that and do so in a manner and way that makes it very clear to all who us who are “in” government that they must attend to the People’s Business not their own.
They must pay a price upon being caught failing to do just that.
When it is the People and not the Government enforcing the Law there shall be no Appeals and perhaps not even Trials. Mere Indictment could lead to a Conviction and there would probably be but one penalty.
It has happened elsewhere and our own Declaration of Independence spelled out the terms and conditions of the contract between the People and the Government of ours. The Constitution set up the framework of how that government is to operate.
I pray that we never see that happen but I can easily imagine that unless our current path is corrected and returns us to the system of justice that ensures the sanctity of the Rule of Law where the culpable are apprehended, tried, and upon conviction….punished appropriately (of them in an equal and impartial manner without favor or bias) we are headed down the road to Perdition as a Nation.
People forget that the judicial system is not meant to protect the innocent. It does, but that’s only a side effect. The real purpose is to protect the guilty, otherwise we have mob justice and only one form of punishment, with no possibility of appeal.
“The real purpose is to protect the guilty”
And one of the primary ways it does that is by meting out sufficient punishment to the guilty that the mob is less motivated to spill their blood. If it fails to do that, then the mob has a real rationale, and some would say, justification to take action on its own.
Icarus comes to mind.
I have heard the story of him voting for a communist prior to his joining the CIA. That in itself would make me wonder about the CIA’s recruiting prowess. 1980 was 45 years ago and the Soviet Union was still near the zenith of it’s power, but still just 10 years short of it’s collapse. Yet our main external intelligence agency is picking someone who voted for the adherents of the communist political view. Kind of strange. I have to also wonder about the Senate that passed his selection to head of the CIA. Did they know his whole story or did they even care?
He has had a history of strange other choices in his personal life that would almost seem to make him a contrarian to the American point of view. While that may make him valuable in assessing threats from other cultures it can also lead him to become an adherent of that opponent’s point of view. He should have remained several steps away from making policy decisions but that is more Obama’s fault that anything.
Strange how so many of these miscreants were appointed by Obama and have been planted through the government, often inserted into difficult to remove civil service jobs. Wonder how that happens?
Obama is the curse that just keeps on giving. Seems a lot of the luster on his polished facade is starting to get very chipped and cracked.
I hate to agree with ATS but unlikely any will see prison.
The rapid rise of Barack Hussein Obama is very strange, yet no one questions it or has any desire to investigate how this happened or who, if anyone, was behind it.
@Anonymous
I’ve always thought so, too. Ditto for certain current members of Congress who appeared out of thin air but are yet somehow perfectly ideologically aligned. Coincidence is no longer a sufficient explanation for any of it.
“I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy. I mean, that’s a storybook, man.” Joe Biden on a rival candidate for president.
Obama’s rival’s chief qualification for the job was marriage to a man who publicly cheated on her with a woman half her age.
GEB,
I agree it is unlikely any will see prison but I think we will have to take all the evidence and to show and know exactly what lengths they went to, to undermine not only the first Trump admin but the American people. It also needs to be pointed out at how the MSM also attempted to undermine the American people.
Tulsi’s disclosure on Obama
Please make it known – during December of 2016.
Along with the treasonous acts against our presidency, he also attempted to cause long standing friction between the USA and Russia. This was calmed by General Flynn intercepted phone call to the Russian ambassador.
(And we know what the Obama administration did to him sadly)
President Barack Obama ordered the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats on December 29, 2016, during the final weeks of his presidency. The move was part of a broader set of sanctions in response to Russia’s alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, specifically through cyberattacks targeting Democratic Party official.
Here’s what happened:
• 🕵️♂️ Espionage Allegations: The expelled diplomats were accused of being intelligence operatives working under diplomatic cover.
• 🖥️ Cyberattacks: U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that Russian hackers, believed to be linked to the GRU (Russian military intelligence), accessed and leaked sensitive information to influence the election outcome.
• 🏠 Facility Closures: Two Russian-owned compounds in Maryland and New York were also shut down. These were suspected of being used for intelligence activities.
• 🇷🇺 Russian Reaction: Although Russia condemned the expulsions, President Vladimir Putin chose not to retaliate by expelling U.S. diplomats from Russia.
Obama stated that these actions were meant to send a clear message: foreign interference in U.S. democratic processes would have consequences. It was a dramatic diplomatic step, especially given the timing—just weeks before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
All treasonous acts against our country.
imagine ALL THE CRIMES we don’t know?
Don’t know…. you are delusional. Take the damn meds finally.
Hahahaha!!! Good one loser. That’s really high brow of you. Please tell me you are joking about this being a job, your insipid trolling.
YET!
Until Democrats start being jailed for their crimes…they will continue to fight their CIVIL WAR against America
Civil war huh? Delusional. Take those meds man.
Hahahahaha!!!! Another gem!!! You’re on a true stupid roll today. Do they pay you for your lame trolling in peanuts or ramen?
John Brennan openly voted for a communist president. His CRIMES have been know for over a Decade.
CIA director John Brennan apologized to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who had accused the CIA of spying on her committee’s computers.
He MUST BE JAILED
For what exactly. Got proof. What laws were broken?
Hahahahaha!!! This is your best? It’s not enough.
And Jake Tapper will write a book about it…
Well Summarized, Prof. Turley.. and with great Humanitarian ethos.. Thank you!
He belongs jail, unless he helps put Obama in jail.
Hahahahaha!
Corollary: a person in a Qult doesn’t know that they are in a Qult.☝️
You mean, like you?
Hahahaha!!!! Ohh sick burn. Damn are you lame. Is this really your job? Online trolling? You just plain suck at it, if you weren’t aware.
Amen. Obama too.
Seriously, no one is going to jail.
Hahahaha!!! This is your best talking point now? Pathetic as usual.
Worried are you ?
“no one is going to jail”
If that is so, it could become open season on Brennan and the rest of the perps who successfully plotted to deprive every citizen of the US of his or her right to have a voice in selecting its leaders. I suspect that justice will be served in one form or another. Brennan & co might do well to fess up and settle for the traditional variety. I think that the patience of the People for the inside the Beltway political shenanigans that are typically employed to excuse such behavior from the “politically anointed” and allow them to escape punishment may be extremely limited in this case.
“He belongs jail, unless he helps put Obama in jail”
He belongs in jail regardless. What he did in manufacturing intelligence and lying to congress demands it. I’d consider a reduced sentence.
“He belongs in jail regardless.”
He actually belongs at the end of a rope, or in front of a firing squad. It difficult to meaningfully reduce a death sentence while retaining the power of such punishment to set an example.