John Brennan rewrites foundation of American justice

Barack Obama CIA director John Brennan, regarded as the architect of the now debunked Trump-Russia collusion claim, apparently doesn't understand the foundational premise of the American justice system, innocent until proven guilty.

In an interview with MSNBC's "Morning Joe," he said "people are innocent, you know, until alleged to be involved in some kind of criminal activity."

With sincere apologies in advance to all US liberals who are offended by criticisms of former CIA chiefs, @JohnBrennan's understanding of the presumption of innocence is completely warped, but in the most unsurprising way imaginable: pic.twitter.com/IsE8ulSJMo

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 6, 2019

Zerohedge featured journalist Glenn Greenwald's Twitter post on Brennan's statement.

Greenwald wrote, "With sincere apologies in advance to all U.S. liberals who are offended by criticisms of former CIA chiefs, @JohnBrennan's understanding of the presumption of innocence is completely warped, but in the most unsurprising way imaginable:"

Zerohedge explained: "The presumption of innocence, as a foundation of the U.S. judicial system, has seemingly been under attack since November 8th 2016. An allegation is made, media runs with the narrative, the seed of possibility of guilt is implanted in the minds of zombie Americans, and the accused is maligned forever – no court required. Simple. And now, none other than former CIA Director John Brennan clarifies exactly how the deep state sees 'due process'…"

Zerohedge said that some have suggested, in Brennan's defense, "that he was being sarcastic, or even joking, but nothing in his delivery suggests that and furthermore, it's not the smartest thing to say given the goings on at the margin of the legal[] system and the death-by-allegation media narratives that are swarming around the enemies of his deep-state attack."

"Of course, we should by now know full well how to treat anything that comes out of Brennan's mouth."

Greenwald pointed out that Brennan was totally wrong regarding the Robert Mueller special counsel investigation of President Trump.

An all-time MSNBC/CIA/Brennan classic, from just a couple of weeks before Mueller closed his investigation without indicting any American for conspiring with Russia over the election. Maybe life-long disinformation agents aren't the best "news" analysts: pic.twitter.com/nPlaq5YVxf

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 6, 2019

Brennan, now a CNN commentator, has accused Trump of treason.

Following Mueller's conclusion that there was no collusion with Russia by the Trump campaign, Brennan told MSNBC's "Morning Joe": "I don't know if I received bad information, but I think I suspected there was more than there actually was."

Significantly, CNN provided no disclaimer that viewers listening to Brennan's commentary on the Mueller probe should take into account his own complicity in initiating the allegations of Trump campaign collusion with Russia.

At the White House, President Trump insinuated that the genesis of the Russia-collusion investigation came from the Obama White House.

A reporter asked: "Do you think it reached the West Wing of the Obama White House?"

"I don't want to say that, but I think you know the answer."

Later, Trump said: "I think it went very high up. I think what happened is a disgrace. I don't believe our country should allow this ever to happen again."

The Washington Post reported that in August 2016, Brennan requested a meeting with President Obama after compiling his own dossier of claims of Russian interference in the election.

That same month, Brennan briefed then-Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid about elements in another dossier, the unverified anti-Trump document crafted by former British spy Christopher Steele that was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. Reid then transmitted some of the information in a letter to the FBI.

The salacious and unsubstantiated claims against Trump from Russian sources later were used as evidence to obtain a warrant to spy on Trump campaign volunteer Carter Page.

There now is an investigation into the role the dossier had in obtaining the warrant and its overall part in initiating the special counsel probe.

In an interview last August, Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani accused Brennan of being the "quarterback" who took the Steele dossier to Reid and touched off the investigation.

Russia expert Paul Kengor highlighted Brennan's radical background, noting the Obama CIA director voted for Communist Party candidate Gus Hall for president of the United States.

Brennan also has a record of lying. He was probed for committing perjury by testifying falsely, under oath, before the House Intelligence Committee that the infamous anti-Trump “dossier” funded by the Democratic Party played no role in the intelligence community’s publicly released conclusion that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.

Brennan further declared he did not know who commissioned the opposition-research document, even though senior national security and counter-intelligence officials at the Justice Department and FBI knew the previous year it was funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.

After Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., accused the CIA of spying on members of the Senate by hacking into computers used by her intelligence committee’s staffers, Brennan said, "Let me assure you the CIA was in no way spying on [the committee] or the Senate."

However, a CIA inspector general's report found the CIA was indeed spying on the Senate, and Brennan was forced to privately apologize to intelligence committee members.

Brennan also claimed in a 2011 speech that there had not been "a single collateral death" from U.S. drone strikes because of their "exceptional proficiency [and] precision.'" However, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism found that one U.S. drone strike alone had killed 42 Pakistanis, "most of them civilians."