DOJ obtained an order empaneling a Fort Pierce, Florida grand jury to investigate Crossfire Hurricane and Brennan
On September 26, 2025, Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia Altonaga signed an administrative order authorizing an additional federal grand jury to sit in Fort Pierce, Florida beginning January 12, 2026, which ABC News later reported was sought at the Trump administration's request. Conservative activist Mike Davis, an informal adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi who said he had "pushed very hard" for it, publicly described the jury as reopening a decade-old "conspiracy" investigation reaching former CIA Director John Brennan and other officials tied to the 2016 Russia inquiry, and Brennan's own attorney confirmed by December 2025 that Brennan had been formally named a target.
Actors
On September 26, 2025, Chief U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida signed Administrative Order 2025-74, authorizing an additional federal grand jury to sit in the district's Northern Region courthouse in Fort Pierce beginning January 12, 2026. The order itself is a routine administrative document that does not name a subject, but ABC News reported a month later, based on court documents, that the empanelment had been sought at the Trump administration's request -- and Fort Pierce is the seat of U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee best known for dismissing the classified-documents case against Trump in 2023.
Conservative attorney Mike Davis, an informal adviser to Attorney General Pam Bondi who said he had "pushed very hard" for the grand jury, told conservative podcast audiences in October 2025 that it would investigate what he called a decade-long conspiracy against Trump beginning with the 2016 Russia investigation, and suggested former Attorney General Merrick Garland, former Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, former FBI Director Chris Wray and former Special Counsel Jack Smith could be compelled to testify. The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Florida did not respond to requests for comment on the grand jury's purpose. By December 2025, former CIA Director John Brennan's attorney disclosed that prosecutors had formally notified Brennan he was a target of the investigation, which was examining the production of a 2017 intelligence assessment on Russian election interference.
This archive records the grand jury's origination separately from the investigation's later staffing changes -- the April 2026 removal of the career prosecutor who resisted bringing unsupported charges and the installation of an outside political ally in her place -- which are recorded as their own events.
Updates
2025-12-22 — Brennan's attorney disclosed formal target status and alleged judge-shopping [3]
On December 22, 2025, Brennan's defense attorney Ken Wainstein sent a letter to Chief Judge Altonaga disclosing that prosecutors had formally informed Brennan he is a "target" of the grand jury investigation and accusing the Justice Department of maneuvering to steer the case toward the Fort Pierce courtroom of Judge Aileen Cannon -- the sole judge sitting there and a Trump appointee who had previously ruled in Trump's favor -- rather than assigning it through the district's normal random-assignment process. The letter also alleged the investigation had been shopped among other U.S. Attorney's offices before landing in the Southern District of Florida. DOJ did not publicly respond to the judge-shopping allegation as of this reporting. [3]
Why we recorded this
Prosecutorial discretion over whether to open a criminal investigation is supposed to rest on evidence, not on a president's grievances against the officials who investigated him. Court records show DOJ obtained an order empaneling a new federal grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida at the Trump administration's request, and reporting has since established the jury was used to pursue former CIA Director John Brennan and the origins of the 2016-2017 Russia investigation. This archive records the investigation's opening because directing the grand jury process at a president's past investigators, rather than at facts developed through ordinary case referral, turns a tool meant to test evidence before an independent body into an instrument of political retaliation.
Sources
- Administrative Order 2025-74 — U.S. District Court, Southern District of Florida primary accessed September 2, 2026
- Trump ally says grand jury empaneled in Florida to investigate a sweeping conspiracy against Trump — ABC News primary accessed September 2, 2026
- John Brennan accuses Justice Department of possible judge shopping and grand jury leaks — CNN primary accessed September 2, 2026
- Federal Judge Orders Empanelment of Florida Grand Jury to Scrutinize 'Crossfire Hurricane' — PJ Media secondary accessed September 2, 2026
See also
- AG Bondi opened DOJ investigations into Sen. Adam Schiff and NY AG Letitia James, appointing Trump ally Ed Martin as special attorney for both probes
- FBI probes Democratic lawmakers for First Amendment-protected video on military constitutional duties
- AG Bondi ordered FBI to compile list of Americans by political viewpoint
- AG Bondi issued memo directing FBI and DOJ to investigate and prosecute gender-affirming care providers for minors
- DOJ opened criminal probe of Federal Reserve Chair Powell with no evidence, using renovation costs as pretext for Trump's rate-policy feud
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