John Thune and Tom Cotton now face a question neither should need days to answer: Why is the Republican Senate still withholding records sought by President Donald Trump's Justice Department in the John Brennan investigation?
John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy from Just the News:
Earlier this year, the U.S. Justice Department asked two Senate committees to provide transcripts and records of contacts with former CIA Director John Brennan regarding the now-discredited Russia collusion allegations, signaling there was an active investigation into whether the former spy boss had misled or obstructed Congress. The letters gave a hard deadline of Feb. 23 for compliance.
Two months later, the body run by Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not complied, slowing a key angle of a grand jury investigation based in Fort Pierce, Fla., into whether Obama and Biden-era government officials engaged in a conspiracy to weaponize law enforcement and intelligence tools to harm President Donald Trump and his followers.
All that is needed, senators told Just the News, is a resolution to be introduced and a floor vote in the GOP-controlled Senate. Neither has happened — even after prosecutors narrowed their requests to evidence related to Brennan — though prosecutors were recently allowed to read one Senate Intelligence Committee report in a secure room, officials said.
A Justice Department letter sent early this year requested fully unredacted Senate transcripts, depositions, briefings, hearing records, and written responses tied to Brennan.
JOHN SOLOMON: John Thune and Tom Cotton Are Blocking the DOJ From Obtaining the Brennan Transcripts, and Todd Blanche Has Failed to Force Their Release.@jsolomonReports pic.twitter.com/ft5CHSUmMh
— Bannon’s WarRoom (@Bannons_WarRoom) August 5, 2026
Prosecutors sought material involving the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment, the Steele dossier, and the allegations of Trump-Russia collusion.
The deadline was Feb. 23, and the Senate didn't comply.
The delay has now lasted months. A report released Wednesday named Thune, the Senate majority leader from South Dakota, and Cotton, the Arkansas Republican who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, as the two leaders preventing the records from reaching prosecutors.
The House had already voted to transfer comparable evidence. The Senate reportedly chose to pursue unanimous consent instead of forcing a public vote, giving any Democrat the power to quietly stop the transfer.
Investigate Thune and Cotton! https://t.co/gkCFk6P6jo
— Mike Engleman🇺🇲 (@RealHickory) August 6, 2026
Cotton's role is harder to understand; he's built a national reputation as an aggressive critic of intelligence abuse and Democratic lawfare. Now his committee holds evidence that may help determine whether Brennan lied to Congress, and the evidence remains locked away.
Republicans shouldn't need a motivational speech to cooperate with a Republican Justice Department investigating whether government officials weaponized law enforcement and intelligence against President Trump.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) referred Brennan to the Justice Department for criminal prosecution in October 2025. The referral accused the former CIA director of making false statements during a 2023 transcribed interview about the CIA's handling of the Steele dossier and its use in the 2017 assessment.
John Thune and Tom Cotton Are Blocking DOJ from Obtaining Brennan Transcripts before US Senate Committees – Impeding Investigation into Former CIA Chief
— Tony Seruga (@TonySeruga) August 5, 2026
With friends like John Thune and Tom Cotton — who needs enemies?
John Solomon from Just the News broke the news on Wednesday… pic.twitter.com/OzQpvnbT9q
Brennan denies wrongdoing and calls the investigation politically motivated.
I have an idea. How about releasing the transcripts to test both claims against the evidence?
Thune's caution is less surprising; he's repeatedly acted as if Senate custom deserves more protection than voters' demand for action. Cotton was supposed to be different; conservatives expected him to recognize that intelligence agencies can't police themselves while Congress keeps relevant testimony beyond investigators' reach.
From CDM:
The obstruction is all the more striking because it involves a Republican-controlled Senate refusing to help a Republican-controlled executive branch prosecute a figure that the same Senate referred for prosecution in the first place. Jim Jordan’s House Judiciary Committee sent a criminal referral on Brennan to DOJ in October 2025, alleging he made false statements about the CIA’s use of the Steele dossier in drafting the 2017 ICA — the fraudulent document that set Russiagate in motion.
Prosecutors in Fort Pierce, Florida — led by veteran attorney Joe diGenova, who was appointed to lead the Russia collusion accountability case — need the Senate transcripts to complete the evidentiary picture. DiGenova is a former U.S. Attorney who prosecuted D.C. Mayor Marion Barry and convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard. The stakes could not be higher: this is a grand jury investigation into whether Obama and Biden-era officials weaponized intelligence tools to destroy Donald Trump and his supporters.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche also owes an explanation. DOJ can seek a grand jury subpoena; if Senate leaders refuse to cooperate, Blanche should force the issue in court and make both sides defend their conduct in public.
Months of polite letters have produced delay instead of evidence.
Releasing records doesn't presume Brennan's guilt; it permits prosecutors to decide whether charges are warranted and gives Brennan the same opportunity to have his testimony examined in context.
The delay stands in stark contrast to the House, which had already voted to transmit to DOJ similar evidence from its side of the Capitol. It also risks inflaming Thune’s already strained relationship with Trump.
The president has openly fumed that the Senate leader has been unwilling to rid the chamber of the 60-vote filibuster rule and has been unable to muster enough votes for the administration’s signature election-integrity legislation called the Save America Act, which would impose citizenship checks and photo ID for voters in federal elections.
Two spokespersons for Thune did not immediately return an email from Just the News seeking comment. A spokesperson for the Senate Intelligence Committee also did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley said he was committed to full transparency.
"Senator Grassley has released a deluge of information related to Crossfire Hurricane over the past decade, including the defective annex to the Intelligence Community’s assessment of Russian election interference, which then-DNI Ratcliffe declassified and provided to Grassley upon his request," the spokesperson said.
"Grassley has made public records he’s received throughout multiple Congresses regarding Crossfire Hurricane, including the declassified Durham and Clinton Annexes, and left no stone unturned," the spokesperson said.
If Brennan did nothing wrong, the evidence can say so. But if he misled Congress, prosecutors deserve the records.
Thune and Cotton can end the controversy by introducing the resolution, holding the vote, and releasing the material. Otherwise, they should state the legal reason for refusing.
The American people have heard enough promises about accountability. We deserve to know whose interests Republican Senate leaders are protecting.
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