The House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday referred former CIA Director John Brennan to the Department of Justice for possible perjury, sending a five-page referral letter to Attorney General Pamela J. Bondi.
Signed by Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan and dated October 21, 2025, the referral alleges Brennan may have violated 18 U.S.C. § 1001 by knowingly providing false statements under oath.
The referral centers on Brennan’s testimony regarding the Steele dossier, intelligence memos on then-candidate Donald Trump. Brennan told Congress on May 11, 2023 that the CIA “was not involved at all” with the dossier. The Committee cites declassified documents showing the CIA authorized an annex with dossier material, which Brennan personally included in the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment.
The letter also highlights Brennan’s claim that CIA professionals opposed the inclusion, pointing to agency memoranda and the Committee’s own report showing Brennan overruled objections. It references Brennan’s May 23, 2017 testimony asserting the FBI and CIA did not rely on the dossier—claims contradicted by internal records and the Assessment itself.
