A newly declassified review has revealed even more infuriating decisions made by former CIA Director John Brennan, who served under former President Barack Obama and was behind the baseless allegations made about President Trump’s relationship with Russia, which were later determined to be false.
For context, on July 2, 2025, press accounts confirmed that multiple federal agencies, including the CIA and FBI, had made errors and so-called “procedural anomalies,” according to a newly declassified review of an investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election that attempted to incriminate President Trump.
Moreover, according to coverage from Fox News, the review concluded that former CIA Director John Brennan, who pushed for the so-called “Steele Dossier,” which was included in the review of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election, was acting in error and had threatened “the credibility of the entire paper.”
In addition, the report stated that the former CIA director “showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” adding that when he was “confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders – one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background – he appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.”
Furthermore, the declassified report concluded that Brennan “ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline (sic) is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.’” The report went on to state that agency heads like Brennan “sometimes review controversial analytic assessments before publication,” but that the “exceptional level of senior involvement” from figures like Brennan “likely influenced participants, altered normal review processes, and ultimately compromised analytic rigor.”
Weighing in on the information revealed in the declassified report, current CIA Director John Ratcliffe described it as a “lessons-learned” review of the investigation into Russian involvement in the 2016 election, saying, “Agency heads at the time created a politically charged environment that triggered an atypical analytic process around an issue essential to our democracy.”
Additionally, Director Ratcliffe said that mistakes made by Brennan during his tenure as CIA director would not happen again, saying, “Under my watch, I am committed to ensuring that our analysts have the ability to deliver unvarnished assessments that are free from political influence.”
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Importantly, just days after the CIA declassified the report on Brennan, former CIA employee Bryan Dean Wright penned an op-ed on July 3, 2025, for Fox News stating that Brenna “belongs in prison” and that he “specifically pushed for the inclusion of the [Steele] dossier in the [report on Russian collusion] despite explicit warnings from his top operational and analytical management that the dossier ‘didn’t meet the most basic [of] tradecraft standards.'” Moreover, Wright said that Brennan adjusted the facts because he wanted “narrative consistency.”
Featured image credit: John Brennan via X