Ex-CIA director John Brennan alleges ‘vindictive’ DOJ criminal probe

WASHINGTON - Former CIA director John Brennan sued the Trump administration, asking a federal judge to ensure government records are preserved in case he’s criminally indicted so he can seek to prove the charges are “vindictive.”

“President Trump has been condemning and calling for Director Brennan’s prosecution for years,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote in the civil lawsuit filed on July 1 in Washington federal court.

Some Justice Department officials “are engaging in demonstrably irregular prosecutorial activity in order to gin up a case that will satisfy the President’s direction,” Brennan’s lawyers alleged.

The Justice Department has been investigating Brennan and other former senior US officials based on allegations that they carried out a years-long conspiracy to sabotage Trump.

Investigators also have been probing whether they can make a case that Brennan lied under oath to Congress.

Brennan’s lawyers argued that it was imperative for a court to act now to ensure records are preserved ahead of any indictment because there was “ a very real risk“ that they could be deleted or lost.

Brennan is asking a judge to compel administration to preserve more than 10 categories of internal memos, emails and text messages, artificial intelligence platform queries, calendar entries and other records related to the criminal investigations.

The preservation demand includes any private communications by Trump as well as other White House and Justice Department officials related to the probe.

Government officials are increasingly using encrypted communications applications that don’t preserve messages and that there is “ample evidence” that members of the Trump administration “specifically are failing to observe their legal obligation to maintain such records,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote in the complaint.

Brennan was nominated to be Central Intelligence Agency director by President Barack Obama and served from March 2013 to January 2017.

The case was randomly assigned to US District Judge Jia Cobb, who was nominated to the Washington federal bench by former President Joe Biden.

She’s handed the administration several significant setbacks, including blocking Trump’s move to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook.

The Supreme Court this week held that Cook could remain in her position for now.

Brennan’s lawyers declined to comment further and officials at the Justice Department and the White House didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment. BLOOMBERG