The following is an excerpt of my article in Epoch Times
Former CIA Director John Brennan might have perjured himself in testimony he delivered more than two years ago to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence on May 23, 2017.
In an exchange with then-Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), Brennan claimed he didn’t know who commissioned ex-British spy Christopher Steele to write what would become the infamous “Steele dossier” that alleged Russia had damaging information on Donald Trump and that Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign colluded with the Russian government to win the election.
Mr. Gowdy: “Director Brennan, do you know who commissioned the Steele dossier?”
Mr. Brennan: “I don’t.”
Brennan’s response to the question is similar to that of former special counsel Robert Mueller, who was asked about Fusion GPS—the company who hired Steele—during a hearing before Congress last month.
In response to questions by Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), Mueller claimed he was “not familiar with” Fusion GPS, the firm that commissioned the Steele dossier, and said it was outside his “purview” to investigate. Notably, Fusion GPS was working on behalf of the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee, at the same time it also represented a Russian-based company, Prevezon, that had been sanctioned by the government.
Brennan, in his testimony, also claimed he didn’t know whether the FBI paid for a part of the dossier.
Mr. Gowdy: “Do you know if the FBI paid for any portion of the Steele dossier?”
Mr. Brennan: “I don’t know. I know that there are press reports related to that, but I don’t know. I have no firsthand knowledge of that.”
According to a House Intelligence Committee memo that was declassified in February 2018, the Steele dossier “formed an essential part” of the FBI’s Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) application to spy on former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. Brennan, however, claimed he had no awareness of such use.
Mr. Gowdy: “Do you know if the bureau ever relied on the Steele dossier as any — as part of any court filings, applications, petitions, pleadings?”
Mr. Brennan: “I have no awareness.”
What is even more telling is Brennan’s outright denial that the CIA ever relied on the Steele dossier and that the dossier “was not in any way used as the basis for the Intelligence Community assessment that was done.”
Mr. Gowdy: “Did the CIA rely on it?”
Mr. Brennan: “No.”
Mr. Gowdy: “Why not?”
Mr. Brennan: “Because we — we didn’t. It wasn’t part of the corpus of intelligence information that we had. It was not in any way used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment that was done. It was — it was not.”
After this answer, Brennan should have been asked: If the Steele dossier wasn’t used as a basis for the Intelligence Community assessment or by the CIA, then what other “intelligence” did Brennan have as a basis for his assessment?
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Published on Aug 9, 2019
