Trump foe John Brennan sues administration demanding investigative records into him be preserved

By Katelyn Polantz, Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — Former CIA Director John Brennan, who has been under investigation by the Justice Department, is demanding the Trump administration preserve records about its inquiry into him, and asking for a court’s help, according to a new lawsuit filed in Washington, DC, on Wednesday.

Brennan alleges that the Trump administration is vindictively trying to prosecute him, and that he is concerned internal Justice Department records and communications may not be kept in a way that would allow him to challenge a case in the future for improper prosecution decisions, according to the filing.

“Administration officials from the Acting Attorney General to the FBI Director and the Counselor overseeing the Brennan investigations have been publicly declaring Director Brennan a criminal, not only before securing a conviction in court but even before a full investigation and an indictment,” Brennan’s lawyers wrote on Wednesday. “And, certain officials in the Department of Justice are engaging in demonstrably irregular prosecutorial activity in order to gin up a case that will satisfy the President’s direction.”

“Officials of this Administration have shown an advertent disdain for their preservation obligations,” they also wrote.

Brennan has asked a federal judge in Washington to order President Donald Trump, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, top prosecutors out of Miami who have investigated him and intelligence community chiefs to preserve their records about Brennan.

He says the court should also order the preservation of records into any broader “grand conspiracy” investigation the Justice Department may pursue, looking back into former federal officials over years of criminal investigations around Trump.

CNN has reached out to the Justice Department and White House for comment.

In recent weeks, the Southern District of Florida US attorney’s office has beefed up its prosecutorial chops. Just this week, CNN reported that the formerly high-ranking War on Terror-era Justice Department official John Yoo would be consulting with the office on a case that may involve Brennan.

Previously, Brennan’s attorneys had said that a prosecutor told them the former CIA director was a target of investigations out of the prosecutor’s office.

Those include the so-called grand jury investigation, which has prompted a flurry of grand jury subpoenas, and an inquiry into whether Brennan lied to Congress about an intelligence report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. Brennan maintains he has done nothing wrong.

This story was updated with additional reporting.

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