Lawyers for former CIA Director John Brennan formally requested intervention from a federal court on Monday, accusing the Justice Department of attempting to “judge-shop” a sprawling investigation to a specific jurist in Florida.
In a letter to Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga, Brennan’s legal team argued prosecutors are maneuvering to place the case before U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who previously dismissed the classified documents case against President Donald Trump.
The dispute centers on an ongoing criminal probe in the Southern District of Florida regarding the U.S. government’s 2016 assessment of Russian election interference.
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Brennan, who has been notified he is a target of the investigation, contends the DOJ is trying to bypass standard random assignment procedures. His attorneys, Kenneth Wainstein and Natasha Harnwell-Davis, urged Altonaga to use her supervisory authority to ensure any future litigation is overseen by a neutrally selected judge rather than one hand-picked via “prosecution’s self-interested maneuvering.”
While the grand jury is currently sitting in Miami, Brennan’s counsel expressed alarm that the administration might transfer proceedings to the Fort Pierce division.
Judge Cannon is the sole judge in that division, and the letter notes the DOJ recently sought an additional grand jury there despite lacking an apparent caseload justification.
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The investigation’s specific allegations remain unclear, but subpoenas issued last month to Brennan and other former intelligence officials demand documents related to the Obama administration’s findings that Russia covertly aided Trump’s 2016 victory.
Brennan’s lawyers question the legitimacy of holding the probe in Florida at all, arguing the relevant intelligence work occurred in Washington, D.C., and claiming the department shopped the case to multiple jurisdictions—including Pennsylvania—before settling on the current venue.
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