The Justice Department on Monday night began withdrawing several subpoenas that had been issued just days prior in a criminal probe of former CIA Director John Brennan and a purported conspiracy by the Obama administration to embarrass President Donald Trump, according to three people familiar with the matter.
The dramatic shift in plans revealed some confusion and disorder in the controversial Justice Department investigation, which career prosecutors have privately criticized as lacking evidence and being politically motivated to please Trump.
The subpoenas, which were delivered over the weekend, had sought the scheduled testimony of witnesses with knowledge of the Obama administration’s decision to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election. The subpoenas were touted by Trump administration allies as a sign of progress the Justice Department was making in a top political priority for the president: to go after the architects of the Russia probe that eventually became special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump’s campaign and Trump himself.
The subpoenas had ordered that former government officials and some current and former intelligence agency officials appear in coming weeks for questioning before a grand jury in Washington, where Trump’s Justice Department is planning to charge Brennan with making false statements about his and the CIA’s role in launching the Russia probe. FBI agents involved in the probe told lawyers for witnesses that they believe the investigation will now seek voluntary interviews from the officials instead, according to two of the people, who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of an ongoing probe.
The probe into Brennan, a senior national security and intelligence analyst for MS NOW, is part of a larger “grand conspiracy” investigation into the opening of the Russia probe, all run by a prosecutorial team in the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami. But the recent loss of critical prosecutorial experience appears to have contributed to the whiplash decision to subpoena witnesses this weekend in Washington in the Brennan investigation and then withdraw them days later, according to the people.
A veteran career prosecutor in Miami who had been overseeing the Brennan probe, Maria Medetis Long, was removed from that role last week after she told colleagues she had informed her supervisors that there was not sufficient evidence to bring charges against Brennan. A remaining prosecutor on the investigation, Christopher-James DeLorenz, had previously been an official in the office of then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and was a law clerk to Florida federal judge Aileen Cannon until August 2024. DeLorenz has limited experience in federal prosecutions.
Lawyers involved in the case have been told that Justice Department and FBI officials now think it is preferable for experienced FBI agents to conduct interviews first, rather than having a prosecutor with less experience rush to formally question them before a grand jury.
The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment on Monday evening.
The new leader in charge of the Brennan and “grand conspiracy” probe, former prosecutor and staunch Trump ally Joe DiGenova, agreed to pull back the subpoenas for now to reconsider the timing and method of obtaining witness accounts of events, two of the people said.
DiGenova was sworn into office Monday by the U.S. attorney in Miami, Jason Reding Quiñones, who has been overseeing the Brennan and Obama “grand conspiracy” case for the past several months. But Justice Department aides are considering whether the prosecutorial team that DiGenova now leads will need more time to prepare, and whether it should seek voluntary interviews instead of court-ordered appearances.
Progress on this case has heightened significance for Justice officials trying to please the president.
Trump fired his former attorney general, Pam Bondi, earlier this month, complaining to aides that she failed to deliver on prosecuting the political foes who investigated him. The president has been obsessed with charging Brennan and other Obama officials who helped set in motion the 2016 probe, which Trump said was a political hit on him; he had complained relentlessly to aides at the time that he found the probe humiliating as it shadowed his first term in office and concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government helped Trump win his first presidential election.
Brennan is under investigation for alleged false statements to Congress based on a referral that Rep. Jim Jordan, a strong Trump supporter, made to the Justice Department last year. Jordan said Brennan lied in an interview he gave in 2023 in which he discussed his and the CIA’s role in the Russian interference probe.
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