A federal judge dismissed former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawsuit seeking to prevent the possible loss of records he says could be important to a future criminal defense. Judge Jia Cobb ruled that Brennan had not shown that officials were likely to destroy relevant evidence, and that the harm he feared depended on future events that had not happened.

Cobb described Brennan’s claim that the Trump administration was targeting him for opposing the president as deeply concerning. But she concluded that concern alone did not establish his legal standing to bring the case. In her written reasoning, she said multiple steps would have to occur before Brennan suffered the constitutional injury he described, with potential deletion of government records only one part of that chain.

Brennan filed the lawsuit on July 1, 2026, naming President Donald Trump, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Todd Blanche, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and other officials. The 46-page complaint characterized the Justice Department’s handling of an investigation into Brennan as irregular and politically motivated. Those assertions are allegations in the lawsuit, not findings established by the dismissal ruling.

Brennan argued that records could disappear before he had an opportunity to contest a possible indictment. The materials he identified included social media posts, text messages, direct messages, Microsoft Teams discussions, artificial-intelligence queries and communications on Signal and other services with automatic deletion features. He also cited alleged shortcomings in preserving material in other cases, including the prosecution of Rep. LaMonica McIver, a New Jersey Democrat. The filing said missing records could make it harder to assess whether investigators acted for legitimate law-enforcement reasons or political purposes.

Brennan is a target in two federal investigations, involving three grand jury inquiries—two in the Southern District of Florida and one in Washington, D.C. He has not been charged with a crime. He was scheduled to appear before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Oct. 15, but that appearance was postponed.

One investigation concerns whether former intelligence officials conspired to violate Trump’s civil rights through inquiries into alleged connections between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia. A separate inquiry examines whether Brennan made false statements in 2023 congressional testimony about the Steele dossier’s role in a 2017 intelligence assessment of Russian interference in the election.

Trump has accused Brennan, former President Barack Obama and other former intelligence officials of orchestrating what he calls the “Russia collusion hoax.” The officials have rejected that characterization and said the administration is seeking to discredit intelligence findings about Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Brennan’s attorneys, Ken Wainstein and Dan Gelber, told The Associated Press that the lawsuit put the government on notice that its actions and preservation of documents would face scrutiny if Brennan were indicted. They said Brennan would continue to contest what they described as baseless investigations and oppose any use of the criminal justice system for political or personal retaliation.

The complaint also challenged the Justice Department’s handling of the inquiry. It cited the removal of longtime department prosecutor Maria Medetis Long from the investigation in April 2026, reportedly after she raised doubts about the case’s strength. The lawsuit said she was replaced by Joseph diGenova, a Trump ally, who later resigned from his oversight role amid reported internal disagreements.

Brennan’s lawyers further alleged that prosecutors tried to steer grand jury proceedings toward Trump-appointed Judge Aileen Cannon in Florida instead of following the court’s usual assignment process. They questioned why investigators were pursuing the matter in Florida when much of the alleged conduct occurred in Washington. The complaint also criticized public comments by Blanche and Patel about the investigations, including Blanche’s statements that the department had issued 200 grand jury subpoenas and was examining a “pattern of behavior” to “destroy” Trump.

The Justice Department was contacted for comment, according to Fox News. The supplied report did not include a response from the department.