The former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan is taking the Trump administration to court, seeking a court order to require officials to preserve records of the investigations against him.
Brennan served as CIA director under former President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017 and is currently the target of two federal investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Attorneys for Brennan assert that the DOJ investigations amount to searching for "phantom criminal conduct" and that some in the current DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation leadership have acceded to pressure from President Trump.
The filing states that the Justice Department is converting into a tool of retribution against Director Brennan and the President's other perceived adversaries.
The investigations are focusing on Brennan's role in the intelligence community's 2017 assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as his testimony before Congress in 2023.
At the center of the probe is whether the intelligence assessment, which concluded Russia sought to boost Trump's candidacy, was influenced by the Steele dossier, a collection of largely unsubstantiated allegations about Trump's supposed ties to Russia.
Brennan has previously said the CIA opposed including the dossier in the assessment, though a summary was ultimately attached to a classified version of the report.
Attorneys for Brennan accuse the administration of "overreaching actions" that "have violated Director Brennan's constitutional rights" and will serve as the basis for challenges to any resulting charges.
Brennan argues that certain DOJ officials have taken steps that clearly violate well-established norms and limitations on prosecutorial conduct, including issuing pronouncements that evince a pre-conceived belief in his guilt.
The filing also accuses the Trump administration of having a "disdain for records preservation" and administration officials of "routinely flouting" their preservation obligations.
Brennan asked the court to issue an order requiring the Trump administration to preserve "any and all materials and communications that are potentially relevant to the consideration of Director Brennan's legal and constitutional challenges to any future criminal charges."
