Former CIA Director John Brennan became visibly upset during a recent conference when confronted by Thomas Speciale, a former senior advisor for Tulsi Gabbard. The exchange took place after Speciale questioned Brennan about the intelligence community’s handling of the Steele dossier and the Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) report.
During the event, Brennan responded to Speciale by saying, “I don’t know who put you up to this or I don’t know what role you played or who you are but it’s a bunch of bullshit that you just passed off.” He further stated, “You misrepresented that! We never said it was disinformation. We said it was a Russian influence operation! Which is what they do!” Brennan continued, “it’s an influence operation! No! You don’t know that!”
The confrontation focused on the 2020 statement signed by 51 former intelligence officials—including Brennan—regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop. The statement suggested that information from the laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” though it did not explicitly label it as disinformation.
Last month, House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan referred John Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution. This referral relates to allegations that Brennan made false statements during a May 2023 interview with the House Judiciary Committee concerning whether the CIA relied on material funded by Hillary Clinton when drafting its ICA report. The referral also alleges that Brennan falsely testified about opposition within the CIA to including information from the Steele dossier in the ICA report.
