During a May 23, 2017 House Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian interference in the 2016 election, then-Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) asked former CIA Director John Brennan, “When you learned of Russian efforts, did you have evidence of a connection between the Trump campaign and Russian state actors?”
Brennan famously replied, “As I said, Mr. Gowdy, I don’t do evidence.”
Already shaken by President Trump’s appointment of Kash Patel as FBI Director, Brennan must have been apoplectic when he heard that the unfiltered, unapologetic, take no prisoners Dan Bongino was named Deputy Director. I can’t think of any two individuals who did more to dismantle the deep state’s conspiracy against Trump than Patel and Bongino.
Nor can I think of any one person who had more to do with promoting and maintaining the farce that Trump had colluded with the Kremlin to win the 2016 election than Brennan. The truth is that Brennan knew in July 2016 that the infamous dossier was nothing more than a collection of bogus stories commissioned by the DNC and the Hillary Clinton campaign and conjured up by former British spy Christopher Steele and his sub-sources.
According to Fox News, the first outlet to report the story, Brennan briefed then-President Barack Obama and others present during a July 28, 2016, Oval Office meeting on “Hillary Clinton’s purported ‘plan’ to tie then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia as ‘a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server’ ahead of the 2016 presidential election.'”
In October 2020, then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe declassified Brennan’s handwritten notes from that meeting along with other supporting documents. Although large portions of each document were redacted, their meaning was clear. Brennan knew, Obama knew, and the other attendees knew that Trump was being set up.
From the Fox report:
“We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from [REDACTED]. “CITE [summarizing] alleged approved by Hillary Clinton a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service,” the notes read.The notes state “on 28 of July.” In the margin, Brennan writes “POTUS,” but that section of the notes is redacted.“Any evidence of collaboration between Trump campaign + Russia,” the notes read.The remainder of the notes are redacted, except in the margins, which reads: “JC,” “Denis,” and “Susan.”The notes don’t spell out the full names but “JC” could be referring to then-FBI Director James Comey, “Susan” could refer to National Security Adviser Susan Rice, and “Denis” could refer to Obama chief of staff Denis McDonough.
According to The American Spectator’s George Neumayr, Brennan, who had an irrational fear that Donald Trump might win the presidency, ran with the Russian collusion narrative. He didn’t have to twist many arms to bring others on board, but his exhaustive search for “dirt” on Trump and his insistence that the FBI open a counterintelligence investigation were key.
Neumayr wrote that John Brennan’s CIA “operated like a branch office of the Hillary campaign.” He noted that Brennan would “shake down” foreign intelligence officials looking for anything to hang on Trump. He would present the information to then-FBI official Peter Strzok and other government officials. Strzok, as much as he hated Trump, famously told his paramour, FBI lawyer Lisa Page, that “there’s no there there.”
Brennan leaked news of his “probe” to then-Senator Harry Reid, who told reporters Brennan had an “ulterior motive” in leaking the existence of the probe to him, Neumayr reported. The very thought of Donald Trump as president “made Brennan see red and caused him to lose all judgment,” Reid said. But, regardless of what he believed, Reid wrote an open letter to James Comey on August 27, 2016, about the Trump-Russian collusion he had just been made privy to, and then the world knew about it.
Bongino pursued this story with relentless determination, and his daily podcast soared to the top of the charts. His investigation and deep understanding of Ukraine’s role in the conspiracy were unparalleled. He quickly zeroed in on the actions of Ukrainian lawyer and activist Alexandra Chalupa, a former DNC consultant who was instrumental in bringing the allegations of Trump-Russia collusion to international attention.
In his wildest dreams, Brennan couldn’t have imagined that Patel and Bongino would wind up at the helm of the FBI. Had a Republican committed even a fraction of the malfeasance Brennan has, they’d be behind bars. Now, he’ll likely have some serious explaining to do, and unfortunately for him, neither man will accept “I don’t do evidence” as an answer.
Elizabeth writes commentary for The Washington Examiner. She is an academy fellow at The Heritage Foundation and a member of the Editorial Board at The Sixteenth Council, a London think tank. Please follow Elizabeth on X or LinkedIn.
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