The House Intelligence Committee voted behind closed doors Tuesday evening to send the Justice Department classified transcripts of interviews related to former CIA Director John Brennan.
The move is a clear sign that the Trump administration is pursuing a criminal case against the nation’s former top spy.
Brennan, 70, is a long-time target of President Donald Trump and his allies both on and off Capitol Hill.
The vote in the secretive intelligence panel was split along party lines and deeply divided the committee. Democrats felt as if they didn’t have enough time to review the material, which several lawmakers said they received on Friday.
The transcripts will not be released publicly. Lawmakers declined to comment as they left the session in the Capitol’s SCIF.
Brennan, the CIA director from 2013 to 2017, set up the counterintelligence investigation into Trump in 2016. Trump stripped Brennan of his security clearance in 2018 and again in 2025.
Separately, the Intelligence Committee also voted to release two transcripts tied to 2019 hearings with Michael Atkinson, the former intelligence community inspector general, the panel announced Tuesday night. The hearings were centered on Atkinson’s handling of the Ukraine whistleblower complaint, which spurred a House inquiry that led to Trump’s first impeachment.
FISA briefing. House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Intelligence Committee Chair Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) held a FISA briefing for GOP lawmakers after votes Tuesday night.
Their goal is to sway Republican holdouts to back a clean extension of a key spy power, Section 702 of FISA. Senior Trump administration officials have called for a clean reauthorization of FISA, which is staring down an April 20 deadline.
The House is expected to vote on a clean FISA extension when it returns from a two-week recess in mid-April. The vote was originally planned for this week, but House GOP leaders punted because Republicans have major math problems in passing the bill.
Many House Republicans are skeptical of the underlying FISA programs and are demanding more changes. Some have said they won’t back any rule or underlying bill until Congress passes the SAVE America Act.
