The House Judiciary Committee has referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday, the committee’s chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said Brennan “knowingly made false statements” to Congress regarding the now-discredited Steele dossier and Russian interference in the 2016 election.
On Wednesday, Brennan joined Nicolle Wallace on “Deadline: White House” to respond to Jordan’s referral and Donald Trump’s wider campaign of retribution. Brennan called the move from Jordan “ludicrous,” and said the Republican congressman was “trying to get into the action of Trump’s revenge tour.”
“I have cooperated with all these inquiries and investigations,” the former Obama administration official said. “I have explained exactly what transpired during the Russian interference in the 2016 election, and Jim Jordan now, I think, is trying to twist my words and misrepresent and mischaracterize the facts as a way to play to and be a supplicant to Donald Trump.”
Brennan said Jordan was on a mission to “satisfy” the president by targeting the top critics of the administration, which he proudly counted himself among. “I have been outspoken when I see that Donald Trump is doing things wrong,” he told Wallace.
The former CIA director then turned his ire directly to Trump, whom he called a “very sensitive and insecure individual.”
“There’s something that is deeply flawed about Donald Trump,” he said. “In terms of his having to go after these enemies, even though he has enormous political power … still, he feels as though he has to vanquish his rivals, vanquish his opponents.”
Should the referral result in an indictment, Brennan said he was “prepared to respond in whatever way” he could to prove that “these are fallacious charges.” Brennan said that although Trump’s retribution campaign made him “angry” and “sad” for the state of the country and its politics, the growing pushback has made him more hopeful. “Sometimes I’m dispirited and disheartened,” he said. “At the same time, I feel motivated to be able to stand up, and I’m glad that other people are standing up as well. And I see that more and more people are starting to realize what Donald Trump is all about.” You can watch Wallace’s full interview with Brennan at the top of the page.
Allison Detzel is an editor/producer for MS NOW.
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