ByJERUSALEM POST STAFF

The FBI has launched a criminal investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey for their alleged wrongdoing in the Trump-Russia probe, Fox News reported on Tuesday, citing sources from the Justice Department.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe informed FBI Director Kash Patel of evidence linking Brennan to some wrongdoing for a potential prosecution, the sources said.

The sources also said that the referral was received and that a criminal investigation into Brennan was underway. The sources declined to provide further details on the matter.

No details were allowed to be given about Comey other than that an investigation was underway.

Ratcliffe declassified a "lessons learned" review last week of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA). It claimed that Russia sought to influence the 2016 presidential election to help Donald Trump.

FILE PHOTO: Daily newspapers with covers, dedicated to the recent phone call of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, are laid out at a newsstand in a street in Moscow, Russia, February 13, 2025.
FILE PHOTO: Daily newspapers with covers, dedicated to the recent phone call of Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, are laid out at a newsstand in a street in Moscow, Russia, February 13, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov/Illustration/File Photo)

A CIA review last week found flaws in the production of the ICA's preparations were rushed with "procedural anomalies," Fox News reported.

Internal review questioned level of confidence

The internal review questioned the level of confidence applied to the conclusion. While the CIA and FBI assigned it a "high confidence" rating, the review argued that a "moderate confidence" label - as used by the National Security Agency (NSA) - would have been more appropriate.

Despite these findings, the review "does not dispute the quality and credibility" of the underlying classified CIA reporting on which the assessment was based, Reuters reported, according to the agency.

According to a CIA statement, Ratcliffe requested the review to "promote analytic objectivity and transparency." The agency's Directorate of Analysis conducted the assessment.

Among the procedural issues cited were a "highly compressed timeline" for the report's production and "excessive involvement of agency heads," which led to what the review described as "departures from standard practices in the drafting, coordination, and reviewing" process. These factors, it said, hindered the application of rigorous intelligence tradecraft, particularly on the most contested conclusions.