Grand Jury Subpoenas Issued in Brennan Probe After Prosecutor Removed

The Justice Department has subpoenaed witnesses to testify before a federal grand jury in Washington in its criminal investigation of former CIA Director John Brennan, CBS News and the Associated Press reported Monday, citing people familiar with the matter. At least three subpoenas were issued in recent days, according to the AP, and CBS News said they went out over the weekend.

The subpoenas followed the removal late last week of Maria Medetis Long, a career national security prosecutor in Miami who had been overseeing the case. CBS News, citing a source, said she was removed after raising concerns about the strength of the evidence; the AP, citing a person familiar with the matter, reported she left after expressing doubts about the legal viability of a prosecution. A Justice Department spokesperson confirmed the change and called it “healthy and normal,” CBS News reported. Former prosecutors told CBS News that characterization is contrary to standard procedure.

Joseph diGenova, 81, a former U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia in the 1980s and a Trump campaign lawyer who later backed his efforts to overturn the 2020 election loss, was sworn in Monday in Florida as a special counselor to the attorney general and is expected to work on the Brennan inquiry, the AP reported. NBC News reported over the weekend that he will lead a broader Florida-based investigation of former officials who investigated Mr. Trump, which supporters have called a “grand conspiracy” probe.

CBS News said the witnesses, many of whom have been cooperating with the probe, had been scheduled for voluntary interviews with agents. Legal experts told CBS News that switching to in-person grand jury testimony is unusual, and may reflect an effort to use every avenue available after Washington grand juries increasingly declined to indict defendants in cases seen as politically motivated.

The investigation began with a criminal referral from the House Judiciary Committee’s Republican chairman, Rep. Jim Jordan, last October. Jordan alleged that Brennan falsely told the panel in 2023 that the CIA did not rely on a dossier by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele in drafting the January 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian interference in the 2016 election, according to CBS News and the AP. Brennan led the CIA under President Obama. His attorney denied any wrongdoing, CBS News reported, and the AP said Brennan and his lawyers have vigorously denied it.

The subpoenas seek testimony in Washington, which the AP said indicates prosecutors expect any case would have to be brought there because that is where Brennan testified. CBS News drew a comparison with last year, when a prosecutor in Virginia who raised concerns about the evidence against former FBI Director James Comey was replaced by Lindsey Halligan, who obtained indictments of Comey and New York Attorney General Letitia James that a judge dismissed after ruling her appointment unlawful.