On his Fox News program this week, Tucker Carlson accused former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan of perjury, a claim that our review here disputes.
On Friday, a Twitter account for President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign posted a clip of Carlson making the accusation. The account that posted the clip, the Trump War Room, frequently posts misleading or inaccurate information, Big If True reported in June.
On his show, Carlson suggested the allegation was based on a recent report from the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General, which examined how the FBI conducted its investigation into whether or not the Trump campaign coordinated with Russia’s interference in the 2016 presidential election.
The report found that the investigation lacked political bias, but detailed “significant concerns” with the way it was conducted. Among those concerns were the discovery of at least 17 inaccuracies and omissions in applications seeking surveillance of former Trump adviser Carter Page, who was never charged with a crime in connection with the investigation.
The inspector general’s report was released this week before the House Judiciary Committee’s vote on Friday in favor of articles of impeachment against Trump. Next week, the House of Representatives is expected to vote on the two articles, which charge that Trump obstructed Congress and abused the power of his office.
What did Carlson accuse Brennan of lying about and what did Brennan actually say?
In 2017, Brennan testified before the House Intelligence Committee about Russian interference during the 2016 election. The FBI’s special counsel investigation went on to conclude this year that the Trump campaign did not coordinate with Russia to interfere in the election.
During the hearing, former Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-South Carolina) asked Brennan about an infamous intelligence dossier authored by Christopher Steele, a former British spy. Steele’s report was funded by the Democratic National Committee and the Hillary Clinton campaign.
The dossier contains verifiable information, but also statements that couldn’t be verified by intelligence officials or journalists attempting to independently confirm the contents of the report.
Brennan testified that the dossier “was not in any way used as a basis for” an intelligence report used to brief former President Barack Obama and then president-elect Trump on Russia’s election interference in January 2017.
Brennan’s actual statement differs slightly from the comment as described by Carlson, who claimed Brennan said the dossier didn’t play a role in the creation of the intelligence report. Brennan didn’t comment on whether or not the dossier caused the intelligence agencies to write the report.
What does the inspector general report say about the dossier and the intelligence briefing?
Carlson claimed that Brennan’s statement was a “complete lie,” because the inspector general’s investigation shows that the dossier was a major element in the intelligence report used to brief Obama and Trump.
But the inspector general’s investigation didn’t describe the dossier as a big part of the intelligence report. Intelligence officials determined some aspects of the dossier were unreliable, but they were able to corroborate other parts and found it relevant to the issue of Russian election interference. So, rather than include information from the dossier in the main body of the report, they tacked it on as an appendix.
The appendix summarized and assessed Steele’s dossier with two caveats. The section noted that intelligence agencies had “limited corroboration” of Steele’s reporting and that his dossier wasn’t used to reach any intelligence conclusions.
During the briefing with Trump, intelligence officials split his briefing into two parts. The first part, which Trump’s national security team attended, covered the intelligence agencies’ main conclusions about Russia’s election interference, and the second part involved former FBI Director James Comey speaking with Trump one-on-one. The private briefing was to notify Trump about sexual allegations made against him in Steele’s report.
Although Steele’s dossier didn’t play a dominant role in the intelligence report, the inspector general reviewed an email from Comey that showed he had mentioned a detail from the Steele report – that Russia had information on Clinton and Trump – during the briefing with Trump’s national security team.
Our final verdict
Carlson’s statement is incorrect in several ways. Carlson misrepresented what the inspector general investigation said about the intelligence report, and he also slightly mischaracterized what Brennan had said during his 2017 testimony.
Brennan’s statement matches with the content of the inspector general report, so we’ve concluded he wasn’t lying during his testimony.
Contact Big If True editor Mollie Bryant at 405-990-0988 or bryant@bigiftrue.org. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.
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