WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan has been subpoenaed to testify next month before a Florida grand jury as part of a Justice Department investigation into whether former law enforcement and intelligence officials conspired against President Donald Trump, one of his lawyers said Monday.
Ken Wainstein, an attorney for Brennan, disclosed in a court filing that prosecutors last Thursday presented him with a subpoena for Brennan to appear Oct. 15 before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida.
He said he was told that the subpoena relates to a “far-reaching” criminal probe examining a loosely defined theory that the government officials who have investigated Trump over the last decade, including over Russia election interference in 2016 and his more recent retention of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate, conspired to deprive Trump of his civil rights. The subpoena to Brennan is among a flurry that have been issued in recent weeks.
Wainstein said he was informed by a prosecutor that Brennan remains a target in a Washington-based investigation into whether he lied to Congress in 2023, a claim the former CIA director and his attorneys have consistently denied. Subpoenas demanding testimony before a grand jury in that false statements probe were issued in spring, then abruptly withdrawn in favor of voluntary interviews.
The subpoena was delivered on the same day that Joe diGenova, the prosecutor who had been leading what is casually known as the “grand conspiracy” investigation, abruptly resigned amid what a person familiar with the matter has described as displeasure from the Justice Department and White House over the pace and management of the probe.
The Justice Department has not publicly announced a replacement for diGenova. The member of the investigative team with whom Wainstein spoke was Kurt Olsen, a lawyer who unsuccessfully pushed the Justice Department in 2020 to back the Trump's false claims that the 2020 election had been stolen from him.
The subpoena was disclosed hours ahead of a court hearing in Washington in a lawsuit brought by Brennan. The former CIA director is seeking a court order that would require the preservation of all records from the investigations targeting him, saying such documents would be essential for him to challenge any potential indictment on vindictive prosecution grounds.
FILE - Former CIA Director John Brennan testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 23, 2017, before the House Intelligence Committee Russia Investigation Task Force. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said Monday that Russian drone strikes near the Ukraine-Poland border — one of which hit a train shortly after senior visiting officials had passed through the same station — would drive the military alliance to increase its support for Kyiv, calling Sunday's attacks a sign of Moscow's growing desperation.
The strikes “close to NATO territory” show Russian President Vladimir Putin’s "desperation and also his desire to sow fear and terror,” Rutte said at NATO’s political headquarters in Brussels. “Russia is growing increasingly reckless as it continues its terrible war against Ukraine.”
Rutte pledged to increase support for Ukraine and bolster the 32-nation alliance’s own defenses along its long eastern border with Russia.
“He thinks that he can stop us from supporting Ukraine and that he can undermine our unity. He is wrong,” the NATO chief said of Putin.
Sunday’s strikes near the Polish border are the latest in a string of incidents that officials say point to a deliberate pattern of escalation by Putin, as Moscow tests NATO’s response while pressing its offensive in Ukraine.
Rutte's comments came as Poland pledged increased security along its border with Ukraine after a wave of Russian drone strikes near the frontier, including two that landed within kilometers of Polish territory.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned Sunday that Moscow appears poised to intensify its campaign against Ukraine’s borders with European countries. Ukraine is under mounting pressure from Russia’s intensifying air campaign that uses ballistic missiles and jet-powered drones to pierce defenses.
“These coming weeks and months will be a time of very intensified actions on the Russian side, and unfortunately we cannot rule out that this escalation will also affect our territory,” Tusk said Sunday after a governmental security briefing in Warsaw. He issued a similar warning on Thursday.
Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz said Monday in a post on X that the Polish army recovered what was believed to be a Russian military drone from the Baltic Sea near the coastal village of Jaroslawiec.
Polish officials said intelligence reports, including a CIA briefing last week, suggested Russia was likely to attack border points and intensify sabotage actions inside European countries as part of its efforts to discourage partners from supporting Ukraine.
Tusk said he would consult NATO allies on preparing a potential joint response.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski underscored the alliance’s military edge in a social media post, saying that in the event of Russian aggression against NATO, European NATO air forces, without U.S. participation, would be capable of destroying half of Russia’s oil refineries faster than Ukraine.
Deputy Defense Minister Cezary Tomczyk described Sunday’s drone strikes as a serious escalation from Russia. He told broadcaster TVN24 on Monday that any spillover into European countries could take the form of sabotage or a sharp intensification of hybrid warfare “on a scale that we have not seen before,” or other actions along NATO’s borders.
The warnings followed a strike Sunday on a train near the Ukraine-Poland border, minutes after a diplomatic delegation that included former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt had passed through the same station, according to Ukraine’s state rail operator. A second strike hit near a separate border crossing point between Poland and Ukraine.
Kaja Kallas, the European Union's top diplomat, said Monday that the drone attacks near Poland's border were “clearly meant to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine.”
“We should show that we are there for Ukraine and we are not scared,” she said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, asked Monday about the strike on the train near the Polish border, said Russian forces were operating “across the entire territory of Ukraine and continues to do so — and will continue to do so.”
Peskov noted the potential role of Global South nations in a settlement, saying “any country can use its influence on the Kyiv regime to encourage it to show greater flexibility.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi each expressed willingness to help broker a settlement during recent meetings with Putin, who briefed them on the situation in Ukraine, Peskov said.
Peskov also addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s call for Ukraine to halt strikes on Russian diesel fuel facilities, saying “any call on the Kyiv regime to stop strikes on civilian economic infrastructure can only be welcomed.”
Trump on Sunday called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to halt strikes on Russian oil refineries and other infrastructure used to produce and distribute diesel, saying the attacks are causing a global shortage. He spoke after diesel prices in the U.S. hit a record on Friday, soaring past an average of $6 per gallon.
Morton reported from London. Sam McNeil in Brussels contributed to this report.
Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
FILE - Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk arrives for the EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, June 18, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, right, speaks during a joint news conference with Poland's Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski in Kyiv, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (AP Photo)
In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Ukrzaliznytsia Railway Company Press Office, a locomotive damaged in a Russian drone attack is seen at Yahodyn railway station near Ukraine's border with Poland, Ukraine, Sunday, Sept. 13, 2026. (Ukrainian Ukrzaliznytsia Railway Company Press Office via AP)
