That Donald Trump’s Justice Department had decided to go after former CIA Director John Brennan had been obvious for quite a while. One year ago this week, the DOJ confirmed an ongoing criminal investigation into the longtime intelligence official who led the CIA during Barack Obama’s second term.

The probe, however, has not been smooth sailing. In fact, MS NOW reported in April that the Justice Department had removed the lead prosecutor overseeing the investigation after she told her superiors there was not ample justification to bring charges against Brennan. (The former CIA director is an MS NOW senior national security and intelligence analyst.)

This week, however, Brennan and his lawyers started pushing back in a new and important way, filing a new lawsuit related to the probe, which he sees as politically motivated. The suit specifically asked a federal judge to require the president and several prominent members of his team to preserve records related to the Brennan investigation, in the expectation that the former CIA director will respond to possible charges by accusing the administration of vindictive retribution.

It’s not entirely clear why, exactly, the investigation into Brennan was launched in the first place — it appears to have something to do with his congressional testimony related to Trump’s Russia scandal — though as The New York Times reported, the former CIA director “has long been one of President Trump’s most reviled political enemies.”

The same Times report added, “Almost everything about the inquiries into Mr. Brennan … has been unorthodox, suggesting that prosecutors focused first on him as a target and only then set about looking for a crime with which he might be charged.”

It’s worth emphasizing for context that Brennan was also included on FBI Director Kash Patel’s so-called enemies list, filled with those he identified as “government gangsters,” and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt last year condemned the former CIA director as a “disgraceful” individual for reasons she did not explain.

A source close to the former CIA director told MS NOW that Brennan “devoted more than 33 years of nonpartisan national security service to the United States, serving under three Republican and three Democratic administrations. Since President Trump first entered politics, he has repeatedly singled out Director Brennan for criticism, and we believe these investigations are the latest effort to retaliate against him for his lawful conduct as CIA Director and his constitutionally protected speech.”

“If an indictment is ever returned, Director Brennan will vigorously challenge it as the product of vindictive and selective prosecution.”

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