John Brennan launches his 'grand conspiracy' counteroffensive
Before any indictment, Brennan sued to force the Trump DOJ to preserve evidence of vindictive prosecution.
Inside one of Donald Trump’s most favorable jurisdictions in south Florida, federal prosecutors have been pursuing a grand jury investigation into a so-called “grand conspiracy” case tying together a wide range of MAGA bogeymen from the Russia investigation to the present.
On Wednesday, one of the biggest targets on that list, ex-CIA director John Brennan, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to order the government to preserve evidence of his anticipated “vindictive prosecution.”
“Being perceived as the President’s adversary has become risky in recent years,” Brennan noted in the lawsuit, quoting Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s observation in quashing subpoenas targeting then-Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell.
Brennan’s complaint cites the cases of ex-FBI director James Comey, New York Attorney General Letitia James, immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia and the court-blocked investigation of several Minnesota politicians, including Gov. Tim Walz, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, St. Paul Mayor Kaohly Her, and the state’s Attorney General Keith Ellison.
‘Phantom criminal conduct’
Brennan’s evidence of the Trump administration’s retribution agenda runs long in a 46-page complaint.
“Since the beginning of his first administration in 2017, President Trump has also made more than 100 verbal or written statements that personally criticize and demonize Director Brennan,” the complaint states. “In a variety of communications — from Tweets and Truth Social posts to formal media interviews and Presidential statements — President Trump has excoriated Director Brennan as ‘a very bad guy,’ ‘a total low-life,’ a ‘loser’ and a ‘political hack.’ At the same time, he has declared Director Brennan guilty of crimes ranging from treason to lying before Congress, and has twice posted doctored images of Director Brennan in an orange jumpsuit.”
Trump’s cabinet followed suit: His ex-criminal defense attorney turned Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI director Kash Patel rhetorically convicted Brennan before charges were ever filed, chasing what the lawsuit describes as “phantom criminal conduct.”
“This fictitious ‘grand conspiracy’ is ill-defined but is apparently based on the theoretical premise that the investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the other Trump-related investigations in the succeeding years were all the product of a conspiracy to deny President Trump his civil rights,” the lawsuit notes.
The investigation has been playing out in the Ft. Pierce division of the Southern District of Florida, where Trump was prosecuted in his classified documents case — and only U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, perhaps Trump’s most sympathetic judge, sits.
The Trump Justice Department tapped lawyer Joseph diGenova, who hadn’t been a federal prosecutor since the late 1980s, to head the so-called grand conspiracy investigation. In the decades-long interregnum from government, DiGenova had become a staunch MAGA ally, right-wing commentator and reliably pro-Trump conspiracy theorist, amplifying Trump’s lies about the 2020 election.
As recounted in the lawsuit, diGenova branded Brennan “evil,” a “traitor” and the man at the beginning and end of the supposed “conspiracy.” His rhetoric tracks that of the other top Justice Department officials: In an interview with Sean Hannity, Blanche declared that Brennan was “certainly part of” a grand conspiracy against Trump. Patel said that he believed Brennan committed “criminal conduct.”
A ‘record of obfuscation’
Unlike other lawsuits seeking the quashing of grand jury subpoenas, Brennan seeks the preservation of records. His legal team argues that judicial action is required now to prevent the government from destroying evidence.
“President Trump has repeatedly deleted social media posts that should be retained,” the complaint notes. “On September 20, 2025, for example, he posted a message on Truth Social directing then-Attorney General Bondi to accelerate prosecutions against James Comey, Adam Schiff and Letitia James. Though clearly a government record to be preserved under the [Presidential Records Act], the President deleted the post after it became clear that it was in the public domain. It has also been recently reported that President Trump sent a number of direct messages about official matters during his first administration that were never preserved. And he has acted similarly with regard to hard-copy government records, reportedly once flushing some down a toilet and ripping others into confetti-size pieces.”
Brennan notably filed his complaint in the District of D.C., away from Trump’s favorable jurisdiction and tied to the custodian of the records.
“Director Brennan and this Court cannot rely on the government’s adherence to its standard discovery obligations to ensure he will have the ability to protect his constitutional rights,” the complaint states.
As examples of the Trump administration’s “cavalier” attitude toward record preservation, Brennan’s lawyers cite Signalgate, the Epstein files, and the cover-up of grand jury transcripts in the “Broadview Six” case.
“Given that record of obfuscation and disregard of record preservation requirements, it is difficult to have confidence that Justice Department officials will retain the internal records that will be central to Director Brennan’s effort to defend his constitutional rights in the absence of judicial intervention,” the complaint states.
Read the complaint here.
In the rest of tonight’s legal roundup:
E. Jean Carroll seeks to collect on more than $5 million of the bond that Trump posted now that the Supreme Court declined to take up the appeal on one of the two verdicts.
Prosecutors reveal the sentence that they are seeking against former Judge Hannah Dugan.
All Rise News prepares for the 250th anniversary of the United States with a reading from Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s concurrence in Trump v. United States, affirming the constitutional right to birthright citizenship.
