Former CIA Director John Brennan is accusing the Justice Department of mishandling its investigation into him and seeks to avoid involvement by U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who notably dismissed the classified documents case against President Donald Trump in 2024.
In a letter obtained by The Epoch Times, Brennan’s attorney accused the administration of attempting to manipulate grand jury proceedings and judge shop, or select a judge it thinks will be favorable to its case. Dated Dec. 22, the letter is addressed to U.S. Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida and requests that she prevent Cannon’s involvement.
Brennan’s attorney, Ken Wainstein, said prosecutors formally advised him of a grand jury investigation in the southern district’s Miami division but that multiple factors indicated the department was seeking to steer it to the Fort Pierce division. Cannon, he said, would likely be the judge to oversee the grand jury proceedings and handle resulting litigation. Her involvement, he suggested, could threaten the appearance of impartiality.
“While we do not suggest, for the purposes of this letter, that Judge Cannon would, in fact, lean in the government’s favor in any future proceedings, the record of her decisions in prior cases could provide a basis for the prosecutors to believe that she would,” Wainstein said.
Wainstein did, however, preview a recusal motion he said would “inevitably be filed” arguing that “Cannon’s demonstrated pattern of favoring Trump’s litigation positions ... establishes a reasonable basis for questioning her impartiality.”
Among other things, Wainstein pointed to Cannon’s decision to block release of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report on President Donald Trump’s handling of classified documents. In what Wainstein described as an “extraordinary step,” Cannon dismissed that case last year on the basis that Smith’s appointment was illegal.
“I have never spoken to or met former President Trump except in connection with his required presence at an official judicial proceeding, through counsel,” Cannon said last year.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida did not respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment before publishing time.
Brennan emerged in recent years as one of Trump’s primary political opponents, each criticizing the other in public and offering differing views of the investigation into alleged collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
During Trump’s second term, Brennan faced criminal referrals from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio). Gabbard has suggested that Brennan and other officials were part of a conspiracy to subvert Trump’s 2016 election victory.
In his letter, Wainstein said it was “mystifying how ... prosecutors could possibly believe there is any legally justifiable basis for undertaking this investigation” and noted how the intelligence community had backed the idea of attempted interference by Russia.
Wainstein pointed to that statement and others by Trump before suggesting that grand jury proceedings under Trump should not be afforded a presumption of regularity. “We are now in a time when the Justice Department has surrendered much of its independence and the President is directly commanding his Attorney General and her leadership team to use their prosecutorial authorities against his perceived political adversaries,” Wainstein said.
