(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for former CIA Director John Brennan's unredacted handwritten notes and related records from White House briefings in 2016 that referenced intelligence regarding a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link then-candidate Donald Trump to Russia (Judicial Watch Inc. v. Central Intelligence Agency(1:26-cv-01630)).

Judicial Watch sued after the CIA failed to respond to an August 5, 2025, FOIA request for:

Unredacted notes taken by former CIA Director John Brennan during the August 3, 2016, White House briefing, which reportedly discussed intelligence regarding a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link Donald Trump to Russia. This includes any unredacted portions of President Obama's and FBI Director Comey's responses, which are currently redacted in publicly available versions of the Durham report.

In October 2020, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released heavily redacted handwritten notes that revealed details about Brennan's briefing with then-President Barack Obama about Hillary Clinton's purported plan to tie then-candidate Trump to Russia as "a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server" ahead of the 2016 presidential election. In one note Brennan writes: 

We're getting additional insight into Russian activities from [redacted]. CITE alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 26 July of a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisers to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services.