Welcome back, Deadline: Legal Newsletter readers. We've paused our regularly scheduled programming for the summer. In the meantime, here's a preview of a story from MSNBC writer Zeeshan Aleem we think you'll find interesting.
The Justice Department has opened criminal investigations into two longtime targets of President Donald Trump's ire: former FBI Director James Comey and former CIA Director John Brennan. The move not only is a sign of escalating authoritarian energy in the Trump administration, but it also buttresses the president's attempts to try to rewrite history.
A Justice Department spokesperson told NBC News that the department does "not comment on ongoing investigations." NBC News, citing a source briefed on the matter, reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had made a criminal referral of Brennan to the Justice Department and that it's unclear what prompted the Comey investigation.
While we don't know the details of the investigations, we do know that Trump has long seen both Comey and Brennan as his political adversaries.
Read the rest of Zeeshan Aleem's story here.
