Washington DC - The House Judiciary Committee referred former CIA director John Brennan to the Justice Department on Tuesday, accusing him of giving false statements to Congress.

"John Brennan lied to Congress," the committee's Republican chairman, Jim Jordan, wrote in a post on X. "Today, we referred him to the Department of Justice for criminal prosecution."

Brennan, who was appointed as CIA director by ex-President Barack Obama in 2013, was accused of making "willfully and intentionally false statements" during a 2023 appearance in front of the committee.

Back then, he denied the CIA had relied on the infamous Steele dossier – a discredited intelligence report linking Donald Trump to Russia – in its assessment that Russia had interfered in the 2016 presidential election.

Jordan pointed to documents declassified by the Trump administration that contradict Brennan's claims and that, he said, show "Brennan overruled senior CIA officers who objected to the inclusion of the dossier material."

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump and his allies have aggressive pursued political opponents and perceived enemies, in particular those involved in previous criminal investigations into the Republican.

In the wake of indictments against former FBI Director James Comey last month, Brennan told MSNBC: "I'm not going to be intimidated by the likes of Donald Trump. I have always tried to speak my mind and do what I thought was right."