Outgoing CIA Director John Brennan said unequivocally that he had not leaked the dossier. | Getty CIA chief categorically denies he leaked dossier, calls Trump’s comments ‘repugnant’

President-elect Donald Trump’s online remark comparing the intelligence community to Nazi Germany was “repugnant,” outgoing CIA Director John Brennan told the Wall Street Journal on Monday.

Trump has blamed the intelligence community, and questioned if Brennan was responsible, for leaking an unverified dossier containing compromising and salacious information connecting the president-elect to the Russian government. CNN reported last week that a synopsis of that dossier had been included in intelligence briefings delivered to both Trump and President Barack Obama. BuzzFeed later published the report in full on its website, cautioning that the information in it was unsubstantiated.


On Twitter, the president-elect wrote that the intelligence community had leaked the report to take “one last shot at me” and then asked his followers “are we living in Nazi Germany?” Brennan said he did not expect the intelligence community’s work to be accepted without question, but Trump’s criticism of its character and credibility went too far.

“Tell the families of those 117 CIA officers who are forever memorialized on our wall of honor that their loved ones who gave their lives were akin to Nazis,” he continued. “Tell the CIA officers who are serving in harm’s way right now and their families who are worried about them that they are akin to Nazi Germany. I found that to be very repugnant, and I will forever stand up for the integrity and patriotism of my officers who have done much over the years to sacrifice for their fellow citizens.”

Brennan said unequivocally that he had not leaked the dossier, compiled by a retired British intelligence officer, to the media. The synopsis of that report, the CIA director said, was included in the briefings delivered to the president and president-elect at the behest of the FBI.

“There was an interest on the part of the bureau to make sure that the president-elect was aware of and informed of” the dossier, Brennan told the Journal. “The feeling was wanting to make sure that given the very salacious nature of it, the president-elect was at least aware of it so he could take it into account and do what needs to be done.”

“I would have no interest in trying to give that dossier any additional airtime,” he said.