Hi there, everyone. It's 4 o'clock in the east. There is brand new reporting that

details a dramatic escalation in the Trump administration's efforts to politicize intelligence

and U.S. national security. It is also the culmination of a long and mostly fruitless

nine-year campaign by Team Trump to rewrite history when it comes to Russia and the 2016 presidential election.

In the wake of furious backlash from some of Donald Trump's most prominent supporters over the Justice Department debunking their conspiracy theories about convicted

sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, not 12 hours after that happens, comes news that DOJ has launched

investigations into two people Donald Trump has singled out and attacked and smeared over and

over and over again. A Justice Department

spokesperson tells NBC News that officials have opened criminal investigations into both

former CIA director John Brennan and former director of the FBI, Jim Comey. The FBI declined

to comment to NBC News and Jim Comey has not responded to a request for comment.

Now, exactly what conduct is being investigated is unclear at this hour, but when it comes to John

Brennan, who we should note is a senior national security and intelligence analyst right here at

MSNBC. NBC News is reporting that his successor at the CIA,

Director John Ratcliffe, made a criminal referral over John Brennan's handling of a 2017 assessment.

That assessment found with a high level of confidence that Russian President Vladimir Putin

aspired to help the Trump campaign

during the 2016 presidential election. So just last week, the CIA released a report.

They're calling it a note that looks into that assessment. Now, the Atlantic reports this about

the report that they're calling a note.

Quote, the note takes issue with some significant aspects of how the intelligence assessment

on election interference was drafted on a short timeline of only a few weeks, with highly sensitive

...