A months-long tug-of-war over classified Senate testimony took center stage Wednesday when Just The News editor-in-chief John Solomon revealed that federal investigators still lack access to transcripts tied to former CIA Director John Brennan.
Speaking on “Steve Bannon’s War Room,” Solomon laid blame squarely at the feet of two sitting Republican senators for withholding documents sought by the Department of Justice.
Before naming names, Solomon drew a sharp line between his reporting and any inside knowledge from government sources.
“I’m going to go back to being a reporter for a second. I do not know this information from anything I’ve gained in government. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Republicans are obstructing the investigation into weaponization,” he said.
He then identified the two lawmakers he holds responsible.
“There are two Republicans I can name by name, Senator John Thune and Senator Tom Cotton. They have refused for months, four months now. The first request came in late January, early February. They are refusing thus far to provide to Joe DiGenova, to the prosecutors in Florida, to the Miami U.S. Attorney, to the Justice Department, the transcripts of John Brennan’s interviews with the Senate Judiciary— Senate Intelligence Committee,” Solomon said.
Solomon didn’t stop with the two senators. He turned his attention to the Justice Department’s own inaction, questioning why the agency hasn’t taken a more forceful legal route to obtain the records.
“They have refused to do so. I’m gonna call out a third name because I don’t understand the Justice Department’s behavior. When a body that’s separate of the executive branch doesn’t comply, Every other time in American history, go back to Iran-Contra, go back to Watergate, the Justice Department subpoenas the Congress. For some reason, the acting Attorney General, who wants to be the permanent Attorney General, has not authorized a subpoena to the United States Senate to get those documents. Those documents will allow the prosecutors in Miami to decide whether the charges are warranted against John Brennan,” he said.
Solomon didn’t hold back in his assessment of the standoff, branding it “ridiculous” on both political and legal grounds.
“There ought to be a grand jury subpoena sitting in the Senate clerk’s office, and there ought to be a court case yesterday compelling this because the Justice Department has been delayed by 8 months by 2 Republican,” he said.
The roots of the dispute stretch back to early this year.
Just The News first broke the story in April, reporting that the Justice Department had formally sought interview transcripts and related records from both the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
At the heart of the request are documents connected to the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian election interference, along with paperwork tied to the Steele dossier and claims of coordination between the 2016 Trump campaign and Russian officials.
Assistant Attorney General Patrick Davis reportedly sent formal letters to Senate committee leaders demanding “fully unredacted copies of classified and unclassified transcripts of the Committee’s interviews, depositions, briefings, and hearings with any witnesses, as well as any written responses provided by witnesses,” according to the April reporting.
Those letters set a firm deadline of February 23, 2026, framing the request as essential to an active law enforcement matter.
The push for the records is directly linked to a federal grand jury proceeding in Fort Pierce, Florida, which is probing whether officials from the Obama and Biden administrations misused intelligence and law enforcement powers.
Former U.S. Attorney and Independent Counsel Joe diGenova has emerged as a central figure driving the Florida-based inquiry forward.
Despite the February deadline, the Senate under Majority Leader John Thune had still not handed over the materials by mid-April, a roughly two-month lapse documented in Just The News’ earlier coverage.
The House, notably, took a different path. Lawmakers there had already approved the transfer of comparable evidence months before Solomon’s latest comments.
Sources cited in the April report suggested a grand jury subpoena remained on the table as a fallback option should the Senate continue withholding the documents.
As of Wednesday’s broadcast, that fallback still hasn’t materialized, and the transcripts remain in Senate hands nearly eight months after the initial request went out.
Solomon’s on-air remarks represent one of the most pointed public accounts yet of Republican lawmakers standing in the way of a Justice Department probe into the origins of the Russia collusion narrative.
