There’s no obvious reason why the Justice Department would launch dubious investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey. Indeed, Brennan, an MSNBC senior national security analyst, sat down with MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace hours after the DOJ confirmed the investigation and described himself as “clueless” as to why the probe is even happening.
But as The New York Times reported, the answer to the underlying question isn’t altogether mysterious.
The Trump administration appears to be targeting officials who oversaw the investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign’s connections to Russia, examining the actions of the former F.B.I. director James B. Comey and the former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan, according to people familiar with the situation. John Ratcliffe, the C.I.A. director and a harsh critic of his Democratic-appointed predecessors, has made a criminal referral of Mr. Brennan to the F.B.I., accusing him of lying to Congress, officials said. The bureau is also scrutinizing Mr. Comey for his role in the Russia investigation, other officials said, although the exact basis for any inquiry remains unclear.
The Times’ report hasn’t been independently verified by MSNBC or NBC News, though it dovetails with all available information. In fact, Republican conspiracy theories about Donald Trump’s Russia scandal made Brennan and Comey targets, not just of the president’s far-right base — both men appeared, for example, on FBI Director Kash Patel’s so-called enemies list, filled with those he identified as “government gangsters” — but also of the president himself.
It was against this backdrop that Trump was asked at his latest White House event whether he wants to see the former FBI director and former CIA director behind bars. “Well, I know nothing about it other than what I read today, but I will tell you, I think they’re very dishonest people,” the president replied, “I think they’re crooked as hell. And maybe they have to pay a price for that. I believe they are truly bad people and dishonest people. So whatever happens, happens.”
But just as notable were some of the reactions from Capitol Hill. Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York claimed, for example, that Comey engaged in “illegal conduct” that she considers “among the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in history.”
To hear Stefanik tell it, the real scandal wasn’t Russia attacking the U.S. political system to help Trump assume power, but rather, the FBI’s investigation of the attack.
And then there was Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida, who appeared to tell a national television audience that she considers Comey and Brennan to be insects worthy of fumigation.
Sen. Ashley Moody cheerleads the political persecutions of Comey and Brennan and says, "this is not retribution. This is fumigation. You have had radicals roaming in these institutions like termites."
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-07-09T15:57:13.412Z
“Democrats … keep talking about that Trump is bringing retribution and that he’s using these institutions for political reasons — this is not retribution, this is fumigation,” the appointed senator told Fox News. “You’ve had radicals roaming in these institutions like termites, destabilizing them, weakening them.”
In case this isn’t obvious, there’s no publicly available evidence (at least at this point) to suggest Comey or Brennan broke any laws or did anything wrong. In fact, Comey is a lifelong Republican to whom Trump was blowing kisses as recently as his first term.
But that apparently didn’t stop Moody — a sitting member of the Senate Judiciary Committee — from targeting the former directors of the FBI and CIA with dehumanizing rhetoric.
If recent history is any guide, as the strange investigations move forward, this problem is likely to get worse before it gets better.
