Former CIA Director John Brennan is under scrutiny by Republicans who are turning their attention to his claims now that special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation has ended.
Claims Brennan made to Congress about contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign, though recently saying he had been given “bad information,” have raised questions from Republicans about his role in the collusion narrative.
Sen. Rand Paul is calling on Brennan to testify after he alleged in a bombshell tweet that a “high-level source” told him the former CIA director pressed to have the infamous Steele dossier included in a January 2017 intelligence summary.
BREAKING: A high-level source tells me it was Brennan who insisted that the unverified and fake Steele dossier be included in the Intelligence Report… Brennan should be asked to testify under oath in Congress ASAP.
— Senator Rand Paul (@RandPaul) March 27, 2019
“My source tells me that the intelligence community, Obama’s intelligence community Brennan, Clapper, Comey, they were frustrated because they had this Russian dossier but nobody believed it was real… they couldn’t get anything out of it,” the Kentucky Republican said on “Fox & Friends” Thursday.
Paul also implicated former President Obama in his claims about the dossier.
“I believe at that time they did talk to President Obama about it. I think they all should be asked ‘when did President Obama learn about this, what was his recommendation? He is in charge of the government. Did he recommend that you try to spread the dossier throughout the government?’”
Rep. Peter King accused Brennan of “rigging” the investigation against Trump and of “going out of his way to slant the report against the president.” The New York Republican told Fox News on Thursday that Brennan “has been an evil force” and should appear before Congress.
“Now he says maybe he misinterpreted the evidence,” King, a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said. “If that’s the case, number one, either he’s a liar, or number two, he wasn’t smart enough to be CIA director. That he would go on national television and basically call the president a traitor by misinterpreting evidence, either way he disgraced his office. He should be brought before Congress to explain it.”
Trump, who revoked Brennan’s security clearance last year, has hit back as well.
“Brennan lied. Many of these people lied to Congress and nothing happened,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity in an interview Wednesday.
Trump on Brennan accusing him of treason: “I think Brennan is a sick person. I think there’s something wrong w/him…for him to come out of the CIA and act that way was so disrespectful to the US”
“He was never a respected guy…[he’s] either sick or there’s some other problem” pic.twitter.com/7NEQiD942S
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) March 28, 2019
“I think Brennan is a sick person. I think there’s something wrong for him. And I watch — for him to come out of the CIA and act that way was so disrespectful to the country and to the CIA and to the position he held.”
Brennan, who has been a vocal critic of the president, has frequently slammed Trump in unprofessional tweets and comments in interviews that seem surprising coming from a former CIA director. He was so sure, like many on the left, that Mueller’s investigation would lead to the president’s downfall.
After claiming there was evidence of contacts between the Trump campaign and Russians during his May 2017 testimony before Congress, Brennan backtracked to admit he might have been given “bad information.
‘John Brennan should be very nervous’: Ex CIA chief facing day of reckoning for peddled misleading lies on TV for 2-years https://t.co/8nMH0FXjjY
— Jack Furnari (@JackBPR) March 25, 2019
“For him to say the president’s guilty of collusion, of treason, that for me is evil to say unless he had absolute proof. Turns out he had none,” Rep. King said on Fox News. “John Brennan has been the evil force here.”
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Frieda@bizpacreview.com
Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.
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