The FBI has opened a criminal investigation into a former FBI director, James Comey, and a former CIA director, John Brennan, over alleged wrongdoing related to the investigation into alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, according to a published report.

The current CIA director, John Ratcliffe, referred “evidence of wrongdoing” by Mr. Brennan to the FBI for potential prosecution over alleged misconduct that includes making false statements to Congress, according to a Fox News Digital report Tuesday evening. The investigation into Mr. Comey is under way, though Department of Justice sources could not share specifics of what exactly is being investigated, according to Fox News Digital. 

The FBI viewed Messrs. Brennan and Comey’s alleged interactions as a “conspiracy” that “could open up a wide range of potential prosecutorial options,” according to the report.

The two men — both appointees of President Obama — are foes of President Trump who have published books about their defiant stands against the 45th president (Mr. Brennan’s book was titled “Undaunted” and Mr. Comey’s was titled “A Higher Loyalty”). Mr. Brennan is also a paid “national security analyst” for MSNBC, where he routinely denounces Mr. Trump. The president has long accused Messrs. Brennan and Comey of being instrumental in the genesis of the Russia investigation, which dogged him throughout his first term. He’s also accused both men of various crimes, including perjury. 

News of the investigation into the two men comes just days after the FBI director, Kash Patel, his deputy director, Daniel Bongino, and the attorney general, Pam Bondi, received intense scrutiny from those in the MAGA world following the release of a memo confirming the justice department had no evidence of a rumored “client list” belonging to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The memo also confirmed that Epstein killed himself while in his jail cell in 2019, contradicting conspiracy theories surrounding his death that Mr. Bongino promoted on his podcast, “The Dan Bongino Show,” prior to joining the FBI.

Messrs. Brennan and Comey have been vilified by Mr. Trump and his supporters as “deep state” actors who they believe attempted to undermine Mr. Trump’s presidency. 

“I am glad to see that the Department of Justice is opening up this investigation,” the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said during an appearance on Fox News Tuesday evening.

In 2016, Mr. Comey was FBI director when he approved the launch of a criminal investigation, codenamed by the bureau as “Crossfire Hurricane,” into alleged collusion between the Russian government and the Trump campaign to help influence the election in Mr. Trump’s favor. Mr. Trump fired Mr. Comey in 2017, which led to the appointment of a former FBI director, Robert Mueller, as special counsel. After a drawn out probe, Mr. Muller ultimately did not establish that there was any collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians.

Mr. Comey defended the investigation, telling a Senate committee in 2020 that it was handled “by the book” and that it  was “appropriate and it was essential that it be done.” However, the investigation was marred by allegations of sloppiness, bias, and politicization. An investigation of the investigation, by Special Counsel John Durham, found in 2023 that there was not sufficient rationale to launch a full Russia probe and that the FBI had shown confirmation bias and “a lack of analytical rigor.” 

Mr. Brennan served as CIA director under President Obama. Last week, the CIA released an internal review saying it found “multiple procedural anomalies,” including a “highly compressed timeline” and an “excessive involvement of agency heads” in the production of a 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment about President Putin’s efforts to influence the 2016 election.

In its “lessons-learned” memo, the CIA reported that Mr. Brennan had “tightly restricted access” to a highly classified CIA report that was sourced by the ICA’s authors to confirm Mr. Putin’s efforts.  

Mr. Ratcliffe’s review did not dispute “the quality and credibility of the highly classified CIA serialized report.” But procedural flaws like the inclusion of the Steele dossier — a salacious and now largely discredited secret report on the Trump campaign’s ties to Russia — in the ICA “ran counter to fundamental tradecraft principles and ultimately undermined the credibility of a key judgement,” according to the memo.

In 2016, the CIA’s deputy director for analysis sent an email to Mr. Brennan warning that the inclusion of the Steele dossier in the ICA risked “the credibility of the entire paper.” 

“Despite these objections, Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness,” according to the memo.