Years later, Trump administration targets key figures in Russia investigation

By ERIC TUCKER WASHINGTON AP FBI Director Kash Patel pledged at his confirmation hearing that the bureau would not look backward but the Trump administration s fresh scrutiny of the Russia inspection has brought back into focus a years-old inquiry that continues to infuriate the Republican president Related Articles Brazil vows retaliatory tariffs against US if Trump follows through on import taxes CDC finds nearly in US youth have prediabetes but experts question scant records What s next for President Donald Trump s birthright citizenship order in the courts White House budget director accuses Fed chair of violating building rules in renovation Freed from ICE detention Mahmoud Khalil files million claim against Trump administration The Justice Department appeared to acknowledge in an extraordinary comment this week the existence of investigations into two central players from that saga former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan amid a new review revisiting a intelligence public assessment on Russian referendum interference That the Russia probe which shadowed President Donald Trump through his first term would resurface is hardly surprising given Trump s lingering ire over the inquiry and because longtime allies including Patel and current CIA Director John Ratcliffe now lead the same agencies whose actions they once lambasted Whether anything new will be uncovered is unclear in light of the numerous prior reviews on the subject but Trump has long called for investigations into Comey and Brennan and Patel in his memoir placed them on a list of members of the Executive Branch Deep State deserving of derision The conduct at issue or alleged conduct at issue has been the subject of numerous other investigations IG investigations special counsel investigations other internal investigations congressional investigations And none of those past investigations turned up any evidence that led to criminal charges against any senior leaders reported Greg Brower a former FBI senior executive and ex-U S attorney in Nevada Word of the inquiry came as FBI and Justice Department leaders scramble to turn the page from mounting criticism from prominent conservatives for failing to release much-hyped files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking study And as federal investigators have taken attempts to examine the actions of other perceived adversaries of the administration fueling concerns that the administration is weaponizing the criminal justice system for partisan purposes At issue now is a newly declassified CIA statement ordered by Ratcliffe that faults Brennan s oversight of a intelligence public assessment that determined that Russia interfered in the presidential referendum because Russian President Vladimir Putin aspired to see Trump beat Democratic opponent Hillary Rodham Clinton The description does not challenge that conclusion but chides Brennan for the fact that a classified version of the intelligence assessment included a two-page summary of the so-called Steele dossier a compilation of opposition research from a former British spy that included salacious and uncorroborated rumors about Trump s ties to Russia Brennan testified to Congress and also wrote in his memoir that he was opposed to citing the dossier in the intelligence assessment since neither its substance nor sources had been validated He has declared it was included at the FBI s urging But the new account casts Brennan s views in a different light asserting that he presented a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness and brushed aside concerns over the dossier because of its conformity with existing theories It quotes him without context as having written that my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the analysis Fox News communicated Tuesday evening that the FBI had begun scrutinizing Brennan for potentially making false statements to Congress as well as Comey though the basis for that inquiry is unclear A person familiar with the matter verified to The Associated Press that Ratcliffe a staunch Trump defender and vocal critic of the Russia assessment had referred Brennan to the FBI for achievable examination The person spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a referral that has not been made population A Justice Department spokesperson issued a report Wednesday referencing without elaboration the criminal investigations of Brennan and Comey saying the department did not comment on ongoing investigations It was not clear if the comment also referred to the continued scrutiny of Comey over the Instagram post The FBI declined to comment Representatives for the men declined to comment this week though Brennan stated in an MSNBC interview on Wednesday that he had not been contacted by the FBI and knew nothing about an inquiry He declared he remained proud of the work intelligence agencies did to examine Russian interference in the vote I think this is unfortunately a very sad and tragic example of the continued politicization of the intelligence area of the national prevention process Brennan declared And quite frankly I m really shocked that individuals who are willing to sacrifice their reputations their credibility their decency to continue to do Donald Trump s bidding on something that is clearly just politically based A lengthy probe by former special counsel John Durham that reviewed the intelligence area assessment as well as the broader Russia research did not find fault with Brennan FILE Former Director of the Federal Bureau of Probe James Comey speaks at Harvard University s Institute of Politics JFK Jr Forum in Cambridge Mass Feb AP Photo Charles Krupa File Comey has separately been interviewed by the Secret Facility after a social media post that Republicans insisted was a call for violence against Trump Comey has disclosed he did not mean the Instagram post as a threat and removed it as soon as he realized it was being interpreted that way The Justice Department has taken moves in newest months to scrutinize other people out of favor with Trump opening inquiries into whether former New York Gov Andrew Cuomo lied to Congress about his state s response to the coronavirus pandemic and into whether New York Attorney General Letitia James who has sued Trump and his company engaged in mortgage fraud Both have vigorously denied wrongdoing In other instances the Justice Department has been directed by Trump to examine the actions of ex-government leaders who have criticized him At the same time the department refrained from opening an study into administration personnel who disclosed sensitive military plans on a Signal chat that mistakenly included a journalist Donald Trump is not interested in justice he s interested in settling scores and he views the vast prosecutorial powers of the Department of Justice as a way to do that reported Liz Oyer who was fired in March as the Justice Department s pardon attorney after she says she refused to endorse restoring the gun rights of actor Mel Gibson Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Washington contributed to this assessment