Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to appear on October 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, in the Justice Department's “grand conspiracy” investigation into whether Obama- and Trump-era officials conspired to deprive President Trump of his rights. His attorney, Kenneth Wainstein, disclosed the subpoena in a sworn statement filed in court on September 14, 2026.
The subpoena was signed on Wednesday, September 9, by Joe diGenova, the Trump loyalist leading the probe, who then resigned. CNN, citing two people familiar with the matter, reported that he quit a day after a tense call with Attorney General Todd Blanche over his effort to block lawyers dispatched from Justice Department headquarters. diGenova said only, “Everybody was in their lane, and then some lanes got crossed, and then I decided to leave.” Blanche said, “One person doesn't define an investigation, no matter the investigation,” and “Nobody is slowing down in any investigations.” No replacement for diGenova has been named; NBC News reported the probe sits under the office of the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Jason Reding Quiñones.
According to Wainstein's statement, prosecutor Kurt Olsen told Brennan's lawyers there are multiple “viable” grand jury investigations, including a “far-reaching” one in Fort Pierce covering “issues at Mar-a-Lago and beyond,” and that Brennan is considered a “subject” of the conspiracy probe. Wainstein called it a “blatantly unconstitutional effort to target an innocent man” and described running the case from Fort Pierce, where Judge Aileen Cannon sits, as a “pretty unprecedented example of judge shopping.” CNN reported that in April top Justice Department officials pushed aside the career prosecutor in charge, Maria Medetis Long, after career prosecutors raised concerns about insufficient evidence, and that grand jury subpoenas have also gone to former FBI lawyer Lisa Page and to Dan Richman, a close contact of James Comey.
No one has been charged. In a related hearing, a Justice Department lawyer told the court, “there's no indictment, there's no charges.” In May, reporting on the FBI team building these cases said an indictment of Brennan was expected within weeks (see Inside the FBI's 'Payback Squad': A Secret Team Building Cases Against Trump's Enemies, With Brennan's Indictment Expected in Weeks).
Update (September 21, 2026): the investigation is continuing without its lead prosecutor. AP reported that “The Justice Department has not announced a replacement for diGenova, but a team of prosecutors and agents remains at work, including Kurt Olsen,” and that subpoenas have gone to former officials “including ex-national intelligence director James Clapper.” Before leaving, diGenova told the New York Post, “If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem”; he later told AP the remark was taken out of context and that “There's plenty of evidence in all of these cases to prove the theories of prosecution.” Attorney General Todd Blanche declined on September 15 to say whether he had asked diGenova to resign, adding, “we're not going to slow down just because somebody leaves.” Brennan's lawyer told a federal judge in Washington the government is “blatantly trying to frame somebody for a crime that is complete fiction,” and asked her to order records preserved for a future vindictive-prosecution defense; a Justice Department lawyer answered, “It's speculative whether there is going to be an indictment.” The judge has not ruled. According to a filing by Brennan's lawyers, Brennan is a target of a narrower false-statements inquiry and a subject of the broader conspiracy investigation. No one has been charged.
Update (September 29, 2026): Kurt Olsen has left the case. CBS News, the AP and ABC News, all citing people familiar with it, first reported on September 28 that he had resigned from the Justice Department; on September 30 a department official said DOJ officials had misread his email and that he remains on staff as senior counsel but off the grand conspiracy matter (see the October 2 correction). Olsen, who worked to overturn the 2020 election and had no prior experience as a prosecutor, was assigned to the Southern District of Florida on this probe after serving as the White House's director of election security and integrity, and he made the Fulton County referral that led to the FBI's search there, CBS reported. CBS and ABC reported that several other prosecutors have also left; how many is disputed, and one source said some were temporary assignments that had ended. A source quoted by the Daily Mail said line attorneys revolted over orders about how to run the grand jury, a claim that has not been confirmed elsewhere. The Justice Department said the work continues with a team of attorneys “which continues to grow.” No one has been charged.
Correction (October 2, 2026): This entry said Kurt Olsen resigned from the Justice Department on September 28. CBS News and CNN updated their reporting on September 30: Olsen emailed the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida that he was leaving the case, DOJ officials misread it as a resignation from the department, and a department official said he stays on staff as senior counsel but will not work on the grand conspiracy matter. Attorney General Todd Blanche said, “Kurt Olsen has not resigned,” and, “He's still employed exactly where he was before.” CBS, citing two sources, also reported a problem with Olsen's security clearance before he left the case.
Update (October 13, 2026): Reuters reported on October 7, citing sources, that a failed polygraph was a factor in Kurt Olsen's loss of his Justice Department security clearance; a department spokesperson confirmed he “does not currently hold active clearance with the agency.” Olsen told Reuters that “any suggestion of a revoked clearance is false.” No one in the investigation has been charged.