Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department's investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President 
Donald Trump. The subpoena, handed to Brennan's lawyer Ken Wainstein last Thursday, requires Brennan to appear on Oct. 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, PBS NewsHour reported. Wainstein made it public in a court filing on Monday, hours before a hearing in Washington on a lawsuit Brennan brought.
What is the investigation examining? Wainstein said he was told the subpoena relates to a "far-reaching" criminal probe of the theory that government officials who investigated Trump over the last decade conspired to deprive him of his civil rights. Those inquiries include the one into Russian interference in the 2016 election and the more recent one into Trump's retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The subpoena to Brennan is one of a flurry issued in recent weeks.
What other inquiry is Brennan facing? A prosecutor told Wainstein that Brennan remains a target of a separate Washington-based investigation into whether he lied to Congress in 2023, Wainstein said. Brennan and his attorneys have consistently denied that claim. Grand jury subpoenas in that false statements probe were issued in the spring, then abruptly withdrawn in favor of voluntary interviews.
Who is running the probe? The subpoena was delivered on the same day that Joe diGenova, the prosecutor who had been leading the investigation informally known as the "grand conspiracy" probe, abruptly resigned, PBS NewsHour reported. A person familiar with the matter has described displeasure from the Justice Department and the White House over the pace and management of the probe. The department has not publicly named a replacement. The member of the investigative team Wainstein spoke with was Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who in 2020 unsuccessfully pushed the Justice Department to back Trump's false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
What is Brennan asking the court for? His lawsuit seeks an order requiring the preservation of all records from the investigations targeting him. Brennan said such documents would be essential for him to challenge any potential indictment on vindictive prosecution grounds.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
