Editor's Note: Victor Davis Hanson is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and a former classics professor. He is also a frequent commentator on national security and intelligence issues.

John Brennan Spends Years Lying, Claims Cluelessness About DOJ Investigation

John Brennan spent years lying to Congress, the press, and the public about his activities during his tenure as CIA Director, but now claims he's "clueless" about a Department of Justice investigation into his actions. It's clear that Brennan is only clueless about how not to lie.

Brennan's track record on dishonesty is long and well-documented. In 2011, as the government's chief counterterrorism adviser, he claimed that the Obama administration's drone strikes along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border had not killed a single civilian non-combatant. However, multiple sources proved this claim was false, and Brennan later admitted to making the mistake.

In 2014, as director of the CIA, Brennan lied again when he denied that CIA operatives were hacking into U.S. Senate staffers' computers. "As far as the allegations of the CIA hacking into Senate computers, nothing could be further from the truth," Brennan said at the time. But he was caught in the lie and forced to apologize.

Brennan's biggest fabrications came in 2017 when he testified before a congressional committee that he neither knew who had commissioned the now-infamous bogus Steele dossier nor whether the CIA had relied on it for its intelligence assessments. However, Brennan knew well at the time that the dossier was used to undermine the Trump campaign and that he played a major role in disseminating it.

Brennan's actions were motivated by his deep-seated bias against President Trump and his desire to damage his reputation. He worked closely with Hillary Clinton's campaign to promote the false Steele dossier, which was delivered directly to President Obama. Brennan also approached Senator Harry Reid to brief him on the dossier, and Reid passed it along to James Comey at the FBI.

Brennan's perfidy extends beyond his actions as CIA Director. He has repeatedly lied about his role in the Russian collusion hoax, claiming that he was "clueless" about the investigation into Trump-Russia ties. In reality, Brennan was a key player in promoting this false narrative and was one of the architects of the conspiracy to discredit President Trump.

Brennan's attempts to spin his own dishonesty are laughable. When asked why the Department of Justice might be investigating him, Brennan claimed he was "clueless" about what it could possibly be about. However, we know that Brennan has been accused of a range of serious crimes, including lying to Congress and perjury.

In 2018, Brennan called President Trump's press conference performance in Helsinki "treasonous." But when asked why Putin had invaded his neighbors during three of the last four American administrations, Brennan was suddenly clueless about the topic. It seems that Brennan only knows how not to lie.