Former CIA Director John Brennan apparently is now a witness against fired FBI Director James Comey in the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Obama administration’s probe of Trump-Russia collusion, according to former U.S. Attorney Joseph diGenova.
Brennan has been interviewed by U.S. Attorney John Durham’s team at CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, and, according to a longtime aid has been told he’s not a “subject or a target” of a criminal investigation, the Washington Examiner reported. And Comey told CBS News on Sunday he “can’t imagine” being a target of the inquiry.
But diGenova, in an interview Monday on WMAL in New York’s “Mornings on the Mall” show, diGenova, believes Brennan is now a witness against Comey.
“I don’t know whether he’s a target or not. I can’t concede to the fact that he isn’t given that Kevin Clinesmith guilty plea last week. But there’s no doubt that Comey is at the center of the investigation,” he said. “The fact that he has not been interviewed and the fact that the FBI, it is obvious, is now the central focus of the Durham investigation.”
DiGenova said it’s likely that Brennan’s spokesman was telling the truth that the former CIA director was not a subject or a target.
“I can’t imagine his spokesman would make a false statement about the nature of his relationship [with] Durham, which Durham could quickly correct,” he said. “I’m assuming that Brennan is free, and as a result of that, he has become a witness against James Comey. Not willingly, but I think he’s been forced to become a witness. And I think it’s pretty clear right now that what they are doing is, they’re following up on [Attorney General] Bill Barr’s prescription, which is not every abuse of power is a crime. And that is what Brennan got the benefit of.”
Last weekend, Comey claimed there was nothing wrong with the conduct of the FBI in the Russia collusion investigation.
“Given that I know what happened during 2016, which was a bunch of people trying to do the right thing consistent with the law, I’m not worried at all about that investigation of the investigation,” he said. “Next, I’m sure will be an investigation of the investigation of the investigation. They just want to have an investigation to talk about.”
Former Republican congressman Trey Gowdy, now a Fox News analyst, also said it appears the FBI is coming under increasing scrutiny as Durham’s review nears its end.
Last week, the first case to be made public from Durham’s investigation netted a guilty plea from former FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith. He was accused of doctoring an email during in the bureau’s application to renew a warrant to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page.
