A federal judge on Thursday dismissed former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawsuit seeking to compel the Justice Department to preserve records that could be relevant to criminal investigations involving him and other national security officials.
Brennan argued that he needed the materials to challenge any future prosecution as vindictive or selective. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb found that Brennan failed to show that the DOJ was not preserving records that could support a potential defense.
“Even taking all of Brennan’s allegations to be truthful at this stage, the injury he alleges is simply too attenuated… to warrant a finding of standing,” Cobb wrote.
Brennan filed the lawsuit in July, alleging that President Trump targeted him over his role in the 2016 Trump- Russia hoax investigation. He argued that the DOJ’s handling of records in unrelated cases raised concerns that evidence needed for a future defense could be lost. Cobb found that those allegations did not establish a sufficient connection to Brennan’s own case.
