DOJ veterans fear criminal probe into ex-CIA Director John Brennan is being stacked with Trump loyalists

Politics – CBSNews.com — 2026-05-20 20:29:00 — www.cbsnews.com

Concerns Mount Over Politically Motivated Investigations into John Brennan

Law enforcement veterans are expressing deep concerns that the Trump Justice Department’s criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan is being systematically stacked with politically motivated personnel intent on a partisan indictment. Brennan is currently the subject of two criminal probes led by the Miami-area U.S. Attorney’s Office. One probe is weighing allegations that he lied to Congress in 2023 regarding the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment of Russian interference in the 2016 election. The second investigation is a sprawling “grand conspiracy” probe examining whether Obama- and Biden-era officials were part of a long-running conspiracy to keep President Trump out of political office.

Shifting Personnel Raises Red Flags

Last month, the Justice Department abruptly removed the senior career prosecutor overseeing the Brennan case after she expressed concerns about the strength of the evidence. She was replaced by Joseph DiGenova, a staunch Trump ally, to run both investigations. On Tuesday, DiGenova’s wife, Victoria Toensing, a former federal prosecutor and conservative commentator, was sworn in as a federal prosecutor in the Southern District of Florida. DiGenova declined to comment on whether she is working on the Brennan and grand conspiracy cases, but a source confirmed her involvement.

Multiple sources are now raising concerns that some of the line prosecutors and FBI agents assigned to the case may harbor underlying political motivations that could cast doubt on their ability to conduct an impartial investigation. For instance, one FBI agent previously sought to investigate whether Italian military satellites hacked American voting machines in the 2020 election. Another agent was involved in the botched prosecution of former FBI Director James Comey and lobbied senators to confirm Kash Patel as FBI director. Both agents, Rose Marketos and Jack Eckenrode, served on the Director’s Advisory Team at the FBI, which was set up by Patel and staffed by agents who support his policy goals.

Political Bias Allegations

Marketos and Eckenrode did not respond to requests for comment. An FBI spokesperson stated, “The FBI does not comment on the contents or existence of investigations in the media, particularly those pertaining to classified information. Moreover, any accusation of political bias is false and eerily similar to the actual conduct of former officials under the previous administration who actively participated in weaponized government for years.”

Meanwhile, one of the line prosecutors who recently joined the case, Chris DeLorenz, previously clerked for U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who presided over and ultimately dismissed the criminal charges against Trump related to his retention of classified records. DeLorenz was detailed to the probe despite his limited prosecutorial experience, having recently worked in the deputy attorney general’s office.

Critics Voice Concerns

Stacey Young, a former Justice Department lawyer, stated, “Career attorneys and agents take very seriously the power they have to charge someone with a crime. Until this administration, they were expected to drop a case when an investigation revealed no crime occurred. Now, if they dare to say they can’t justify bringing charges against a perceived enemy of this president, they’re pushed aside and replaced with loyalists who will contort the facts and the law to manufacture a case.”

Critics have claimed that the investigation has been tainted by politics since its inception. Trump has long railed against Brennan, calling him “crooked as hell” and suggesting he should “pay a price.” Mike Davis, a legal surrogate for Trump, has pushed relentlessly for a sweeping conspiracy case against former Obama and Biden administration officials, with Brennan at its center. The case was met with skepticism from career Justice Department lawyers from the outset and was transferred to the Southern District of Florida after federal prosecutors in Philadelphia determined there was not enough evidence to proceed.

Investigative Integrity at Stake

Concerns over the integrity of the investigations into Brennan have only grown as more personnel with seemingly pro-Trump perspectives have been added to the investigative teams. One agent involved in the Brennan and grand conspiracy cases, Marketos, previously worked on a public corruption squad that had investigated Trump and was disbanded last year. During recent witness interviews with former intelligence officials, Marketos asked questions about the “Clinton plan intelligence,” a reference to a discredited conspiracy theory claiming Hillary Clinton used allegations about Russia to distract from her own scandals.

James Davidson, a former FBI agent and president of the FBI Integrity Project, remarked, “It is a staggering indictment of the current institutional standards that an individual who lacks the basic discernment to distinguish between a fringe conspiracy theory and a federal crime is now tasked with investigating a former CIA director.”

Conclusion

The ongoing investigations into John Brennan raise significant questions about the impartiality and integrity of the Justice Department under the Trump administration. As concerns about political motivations among investigators mount, the potential for a biased outcome looms large, further complicating an already contentious political landscape.

Source: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/doj-veterans-cia-john-brennan-criminal-probe-trump-loyalists/