Judicial Watch Sues CIA for Brennan’s Notes on Obama-Era Briefing about Clinton Campaign Plan to Tie...

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for former CIA Director John Brennan’s unredacted handwritten notes and related records from White House briefings in 2016 that referenced intelligence regarding a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Central Intelligence Agency(1:26-cv-01630)).

Judicial Watch sued after the CIA failed to respond to an August 5, 2025, FOIA request for:

Unredacted notes taken by former CIA Director John Brennan during the August 3, 2016, White House briefing, which reportedly discussed intelligence regarding a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link Donald Trump to Russia. This includes any unredacted portions of President Obama’s and FBI Director Comey’s responses, which are currently redacted in publicly available versions of the Durham report.

In October 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released heavily redacted handwritten notes that revealed details about Brennan’s briefing with then-President Barack Obama about Hillary Clinton’s purported plan to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as “a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server” ahead of the 2016 presidential election. In one note Brennan writes: 

We’re getting additional insight into Russian activities from [redacted]. CITE alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 26 July of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.

According to the May 2023 report by Special Counsel John Durham, a section titled “Receipt of the Clinton Plan intelligence” states that the intelligence community immediately recognized the plan’s relevance to the presidential election. Records from Brennan’s office show he “personally received” the intelligence and reported to Obama in July 2016. 

In a section of the report titled “White House briefing” that references Brennan’s handwritten notes, the report states:

On August 3, 2016, within days of receiving the Clinton Plan intelligence, Director Brennan met with the President, Vice President and other senior Administration officials, including but not limited to the Attorney General (who participated remotely) and the FBI Director, in the White House Situation Room to discuss Russian election interference efforts. According to Brennan’s handwritten notes and his recollections from the meeting, he briefed on relevant intelligence known to date on Russian election interference, including the Clinton Plan intelligence.

“The Russiagate scandal was a politically driven operation. It served as an enormous deflection from Hillary Clinton’s use of a nongovernment email server, which was a serious violation of federal records laws and national security practices,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “The American people deserve to know the whole story.”

Judicial Watch has been instrumental in uncovering much of what the public knows about Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate, which involved a long list of Democratic political figures, lawyers, and staffers who shaped the narrative around the Trump-Russia hoax.

In January 2026, Judicial Watch sued the U.S. Department of Justice for fully unredacted records and previously withheld or missing portions of former Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate investigation. 

In November 2025, Judicial Watch provided an in-depth recap of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate debacle. 

In August 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for all records regarding the FBI, under then-Director James Comey, initiating an investigation of then-2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump. 

In May 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for all records regarding the FBI, under Comey, initiating an investigation of then-2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In October 2020, Judicial Watch uncovered heavily redacted email communications among top-level State Department officials and a U.S. ambassador expressing skepticism about reports by Christopher Steele’s London-based private intelligence firm Orbis Business Intelligence. (Steele was the author of the Clinton-funded, anti-Trump dossier.) The emails show one assistant secretary of state saying some of Steele’s reports sound “extreme” and others “do not ring true,” while the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine called some of the Steele reports “flaky.”

In May 2020, Judicial Watch received the “electronic communication” (EC) that officially launched the counterintelligence investigation, termed “Crossfire Hurricane,” of President Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.

In April 2020, Judicial Watch obtained emails between former FBI official Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page, including an email dated January 10, 2017, in which Strzok said that the version of the Steele dossier published by BuzzFeed was “identical” to the version given to the FBI by McCain and had “differences” from the dossier provided to the FBI by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and Mother Jones reporter David Corn.

In August 2019, Judicial Watch obtained “302” investigative report material from 2016 FBI interviews of Associate Deputy U.S. Attorney Bruce Ohr, who was removed from his position in December 2017. In a November 22, 2016, interview, Ohr said that “reporting on Trump’s ties to Russia were going to the Clinton Campaign, Jon Winer at the U.S. State Department and the FBI.”

In July 2019, Judicial Watch uncovered FBI records showing that in June 2017, a month after Comey was fired by President Donald Trump, FBI agents visited his home and collected “as evidence” four memos that allegedly detail conversations he had with President Trump.

In August 2018, a federal court ordered the Justice Department to preserve federal records located in Comey’s personal email accounts.

In May 2018, emails uncovered by Judicial Watch showed Comey was advised by FBI officials in May 2017 to consult with Special Counsel Robert Mueller prior to testifying before any congressional committees regarding Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election and his firing as FBI director.

In February 2018, in response to a Judicial Watch lawsuit, the FBI agreed to review 16,750 pages of Comey’s records that were archived after he was dismissed.

In January 2018, a Judicial Watch lawsuit forced the FBI to turn over to the court for in camera, non-public, review former Comey’s memos allegedly detailing conversations he had with President Donald Trump.

In November 2017, the Justice Department compared Comey to Wikileaks. After Comey was fired by President Trump on May 9, 2017, he gave The New York Times a February 14, 2017, memorandum written about a one-on-one conversation he had with President Trump regarding former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn.

 Judicial Watch, in June 2016, sent Acting FBI Director Andrew G. McCabe a warning letter concerning the FBI’s legal responsibility under the Federal Records Act (FRA) to recover records, including memos Comey subsequently leaked to the media, unlawfully removed from the Bureau by Comey.

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