Brennan says he's 'clueless' about why FBI authorities want to investigate him

Former CIA Director John Brennan said Wednesday that he is “clueless” about what the Justice Department and FBI authorities could be investigating.

“Quite frankly, I don’t know what is true, you know. There’s so many things that get out into the media bloodstream, and it’s interesting that it was, I think, Fox News and the New York Post that are reporting things like this. So I don’t know whether or not there’s any validity to it,” Mr. Brennan said to MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace.

“If it was a referral, if there is an investigation, presumably if there is an investigation, people will be questioned. I would be questioned about it, but again, I’ve had no contact from them.”

The FBI has launched criminal investigations into Mr. Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey over possible wrongdoing related to the Trump-Russia investigation, including possible perjury to Congress, DOJ sources have reportedly said.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe sent evidence of possible wrongdoing by Mr. Brennan to FBI Director Kash Patel to investigate for potential prosecution.

Mr. Brennan went on to say that he “testified in front of many, many congressional committees in the House and the Senate over the years.”

“And I continue to explain exactly what we did during this process, why we tried to make sure we stayed true to our intelligence responsibilities and that we were not going to do anything at all to try to interfere in that election,” he said.

“And again, it was a challenging time, but also one I think that the people who actually worked this, both in terms of trying to collect intelligence prior to the election and then the ones who put together the intelligence community assessment, they really I think showed the best of what the intelligence community and what CIA is made of.”

He added, “I am clueless about what it is exactly that they may be investigating me for.”

When asked whether he cooperated with former special investigator John Durham during his investigation into the 2016 Russia collusion probe, Mr. Brennan said he was interviewed by Mr. Durham and his investigators for close to eight hours.

According to Mr. Brennan, they were able to look at all of the documents, all of his emails and “other types of things, and they reviewed it extensively.”

He went on to say, “I have tried to answer every question I have been asked, whether it be by Senate or House members or John Durham or others, fully, because I want to make sure that people understand exactly what the Russians were doing to try to interfere in our very, very solemn domestic election system.”

Mr. Ratcliffe last week made public a “lessons-learned review” of the steps taken in the intelligence community assessment titled “Russia’s Influence Campaign Targeting the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election.” 

The review focused on whether Russia “aspired” to help Donald Trump win his first presidential term.

He said the new report “underscores that the 2017 [intelligence community] Assessment was conducted through an atypical & corrupt process under the politically charged environments of former Dir. Brennan & former FBI Dir. Comey.”

Senior officials in the FBI and intelligence community were determined to stop Mr. Trump from winning the White House in 2016, and they talked about removing him from office months after his inauguration, newly released documents from the FBI in April show.

Seven hundred pages of emails, memos, interviews and other material tied to the 2016 Crossfire Hurricane investigation showed how these officials were eager to pin the  Russia collusion allegations on Mr. Trump.

The new documents provide additional details about the motive behind the phony Steele dossier, funded and created on behalf of rival Hillary Clinton’s campaign, that alleged Russia had damaging information about Mr. Trump.

The dossier, never verified or fully trusted by anyone in the federal government, nonetheless became the centerpiece of the FBI’s evidence against Mr. Trump and was used to obtain a secret warrant to spy on his 2016 campaign.

On Aug. 3, 2016, during the final stretch of the presidential campaign, Mr. Brennan met with President Obama, Vice President Joseph R. Biden and other senior administration officials, including Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch, to discuss “Russian interference efforts,” according to a memo declassified in 2020 and written by John Ratcliffe, who was the director of national intelligence.

Mr. Brennan briefed the group on the “intelligence” the Clinton campaign had gathered on Mr. Trump. 

He told the group of the “alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 26 July of a proposal from one of her [campaign] advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by Russian security services.”

• Susan Ferrechio contributed to this report