WATCH: Ex-CIA Officer Shares Explosive Details On John Brennan’s ‘Kill List’

Ex-CIA officer John Kiriakou shared a number of explosive details on former Director John Brennan’s tenure, including his in-depth involvement with the Russian collusion hoax, during a recent appearance on the Patrick Bet David podcast.

The FBI recently opened an investigation into Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey over their involvement in the Russian collusion hoax. The exact details of the investigation are unclear, though it is expected to center around making false statements to Congress and “conspiracy,” which could open the door for a wide range of additional investigations and prosecutions.

The Brennan investigation comes just days after CIA Director Ratcliffe declassified a “lessons learned” review of the creation of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), which alleged that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election in order to benefit then-candidate Donald Trump. President Trump’s first term was largely hamstrung by the investigation, which concluded with Special Counsel Robert Mueller concluding that there was “no evidence” to support the idea of Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.

Upon a review of the process behind the ICA, CIA officials determined that it was rushed with “procedural anomalies,” and that it deviated from intelligence standards. It also determined that the “decision by agency heads to include the Steele Dossier in the ICA ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility” of a key judgement.

While speaking with Patrick Bet David, Kiriakou recalled what it was like working with Brennan, including the former director’s establishment of a daily “kill list” that would be presented to the White House. Despite opposition to his nomination from some segments of the Obama coalition, Brennan was ultimately nominated to lead the agency in 2012.

“They make him CIA director, and then he starts just wreaking vengeance on all of his enemies,” Kiriakou said. “This is a bad guy. John Brennan is a very bad guy. From day one, he was a bad guy.”

Bet-David followed up by asking about Brennan’s reputation within the agency and who his leading allies were. “There was a group, even on the analytics side, there was a group of guys who were, you know, these these hard-drinking, most most of them were single, but the hard-drinking, you know, tough spy wannabes, and they gravitated toward John. And he took good care of a lot of them,” Kiriakou responded.

Brennan did so by ensuring those loyal to him would be first in line for promotions. “He got them promoted into the senior service. Like, I, we would get these promotion lists, and I would say, you’ve got to be freaking kidding me. So-and-so got promoted to the senior intelligence service?” Kiriakou explained. “But, you know, they were protégés of John’s.”

🔥🔥MUST WATCH. John Kiriakou tells a story he NEVER TOLD PUBLICLY.. "THE FASCINATING JOURNEY OF JOHN BRENNAN'S ASCENSION TO HEAD OF CIA"
@JohnKiriakou says, "When I got hired Brennan was a DS-14 nobody. Deputy Director of the Arab/Israeli analysis group. He worked for a… pic.twitter.com/SGXUPGrLV7

— Johnny St.Pete (@JohnMcCloy) July 9, 2025

The false statements portion of the investigation stems from a recently declassified email sent to Brennan by the former deputy CIA director in December 2016, who warned that including the dossier in the ICA could threaten  “the credibility of the entire paper.”

“Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” the new CIA review states. “When confronted with specific flaws in the Dossier by the two mission center leaders – one with extensive operational experience and the other with a strong analytic background – he appeared more swayed by the Dossier’s general conformity with existing theories than by legitimate tradecraft concerns.”

The review added: “Brennan ultimately formalized his position in writing, stating that ‘my bottomline is that I believe that the information warrants inclusion in the report.’”

Brennan said the opposite while testifying before Congress in 2023