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Former CIA Director Brennan Says There Are Still "Legions" Of Anti-Trump, Deep State Operatives, At DOJ, FBI, & CIA

Zero Rss
3 months ago
Former CIA Director Brennan Says There Are Still "Legions" Of Anti-Trump, Deep State Operatives, At DOJ, FBI, & CIA

Authored by Sundance via The Conservative Treehouse,

Appearing on MSNBC to talk to Lawfare ally Nicole Wallace, wife of New York Times narrative engineer Michael Schmidt – the guy who received leaks from FBI Director James Comey via Daniel Richman, former CIA Director John Brennan notes there are “legions” of operatives still embedded within the DOJ, FBI and CIA who are working against President Donald Trump.

This is not a surprise as we have noted the Trump administration continues to take apart the tentacles of Lawfare and Intelligence operatives in Main Justice, various U.S. Attorney offices, FBI Headquarters, FBI field offices and various Intelligence Community silos.

Marco Rubio has been working to clean up the National Security Council as well as the State Department operations, including USAID.  Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe have been working on the NSA and CIA collaboratively, and Todd Blanche has been working through the Dept of Justice.  FBI Director Kash Patel has removed about ten percent of the problem in his agency.

Unbelievable. Former CIA Director John Brennan just said the quiet part out LOUD, that there are still a "legion" of bureaucrats within the intel and justice communities who are actively sabotaging the executive authority of President Trump:

"There's still a legion of… pic.twitter.com/XhBLzhy7s2

— Andrew Kolvet (@AndrewKolvet) May 11, 2026

The core problem goes back to what we outlined on these pages {GO DEEP} and is not limited to those operatives who remain from the Obama/Biden era.  Some of the problems surface as a result of ‘republican’ voices recommending “sleeper cell” staff and sketchy personnel for positions in the administration. [I’ll put an example below]

One way to tell if the agency head or leader understands the challenge is by paying attention to how they talk about the agency’s mission objective.

Leaders like Marco Rubio and Tulsi Gabbard have openly acknowledged the problem and are actively tackling corruption within their ranks. Even John Ratcliffe has admitted his agency was politically weaponized and has taken steps to address it. There’s still a lot of work ahead, but their actions show visible progress.

People like Pam Bondi and Kash Patel have praised the institutional embeds without drawing attention to the corruption beneath them. Thankfully, Acting AG Todd Blanche seems to be taking a more confrontational approach internally, so maybe Kash Patel will follow suit. This isn’t about style—it’s about results, and there’s an urgent need for action.

To give an example of “sketchy” recommendations and predictable outcomes, I would draw attention to the lesser visible appointment of Morgan Ortagus.  Do you remember this very weirdly worded announcement, two weeks prior to the inauguration?

Via Truth Social

I have no idea who “them” is referencing in the announcement.

[…] “I’m not doing this for me, I doing it for them”

There were always three options for “them”: (1) the strong republican support people; or (2) people in the Middle East who would be dealing with her; or (3) Stephen Witkoff and Jared Kushner.  Regardless, of who “them” was, it was obvious President Trump was not thrilled by “their” request.

Mrs. Morgan Ortagus is a long time Deep State operative with roots in the U.S. intelligence community and USAID {citation}.  It was very predictable that she would undermine the goals of President Trump and she only lasted six months in the job.  Ortagus was quietly dispatched from her position in June 2025.

CTH predicted {SEE HERE} Mrs. Ortagus would be a big mistake because she was, quite frankly, one of the “legion” insiders referenced by former CIA Director John Brennan.  Ortagus’s entire career profile was/is textbook intelligence operative, likely legacy CIA.

Not coincidentally, former National Security Advisor Mike Waltz was removed from his position only a month before Ortagus lost hers.

On the day he was announced CTH said National Security Advisor Mike Waltz would be the first administration member to get the boot, because in the non-pretending world Waltz was a horrible choice just like Ortagus.  Mike Waltz was removed as National Security Advisor in May 2025, {citation} Ortagus was removed as Middle East envoy in June {citation}.

If the goal was to eliminate the Deep State, President Trump couldn’t take on a deeply corrupt Intelligence Community while also appointing its allies. Their close ties to the Intelligence Community made the failures of both Waltz and Ortagus predictable.

That said, behind the veneer of John Brennan’s statement on MSNBC is a guy who realizes the Trump administration has changed the dynamic and the agency systems Brennan is talking about no longer exist; at least they no longer have the same capabilities.

The need for control is a reaction to fear, and Brennan’s fear is both visible and very well founded.

The DOJ and FBI operate under the influence of the Intelligence Community, which ultimately holds the reins. The key figures leading the IC have made changes to the institutions that have significantly reduced the impact of bad actors within the DOJ and FBI.

The key positions are the National Security Advisor, the Secretary of State, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Marco Rubio, Tulsi Gabbard and John Ratcliffe are the people to watch, and we can tell by the counsel(s) they have put into place that each of them has clear eyes and a steady hand on those critical institutions.

Since mid-year 2025, around the same time Waltz and Ortagus were dispatched, you will note significant changes began surfacing in the National Security Council, the State Dept, the DNI and importantly the CIA.  Some of the changes make headlines, many do not; however, each is important and builds on a larger goal of dismantling a highly weaponized and political intelligence apparatus.

Internationally, what we see in the reaction of allied -or oppositional- governments and their intelligence agencies, is in large part a geopolitical reaction to the consequential changes being made by Rubio, Gabbard and Ratcliffe.  Each building upon a system that fundamentally changes U.S. policy to be in alignment with President Trump.  Each of them should be commended.

Domestically, the accountability developments involving James Comey, John Brennan, John Bolton, Michael Atkinson, Eric Ciaramella and others yet to emerge, stem from the transparency brought by the same trio working upstream from Main Justice and the FBI. The combined intelligence apparatus of the U.S. can cut through the chaff and countermeasures of Lawfare operatives, and I feel optimistic watching them in action.

Again, it’s not just the silo heads that are making a positive impact, it is the personnel decisions they are surrounding themselves with.  The amount of sunlight now coming over the horizon is toxic to the interests of those who organized shadow operations.

As long as Rubio, Ratcliffe and especially Gabbard, keep pushing the truth to the surface; as long as they keep exposing all the corruption that was used to manipulate and weaponize our government; as long as they keep strategizing on ways to declassify evidence former officials buried under false pretenses; then the DOJ, FBI and more importantly We The People, will have information we can use to make decisions.

Ultimately, it is the truth which makes evil enterprise retreat.

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 19:15
Tyler Durden

China's Teapot Refiners Slash Output As Hormuz Crisis Crushes Margins

Zero Rss
3 months ago
China's Teapot Refiners Slash Output As Hormuz Crisis Crushes Margins

Confirming our report from last Friday, Reuters reports that some independent refiners in China (also known as "teapots") are slashing their production rates as margins plummet to unprecedented negative levels, and demand weakens amid the continued paralysis of tanker traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

China refiner margins (when Beijing tells you you can't raise prices, you don't raise prices). pic.twitter.com/DzZQoXqs5a

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) May 8, 2026

Citing unnamed trade and industry sources, Reuters reported today that the average operating rates at so-called teapots in Shandong had fallen to 50%, from 55% in April. What’s more, the operating rates of independent refiners are likely to fall further as the war drags on, and refiners swing into losses that the Reuters sources estimate at between $74 and $88 per ton of processed crude oil.

As a reminder, on Friday we reported that Chinese authorities ordered private refiners to maintain high levels of gasoline and diesel supply, even at a loss, or risk their crude import quotas being slashed if they reduce run rates. If the private refiners move to cut processing rates to preserve margins amid soaring crude prices, they would see their import quotas – handed out by the government in quarterly or semi-annual installments – reduced in the coming years, the officials warned. Instead, they appear to have aggressively reduced their import demands, leading to a big drop in Chinese oil imports.

Reuters confirms that it now appears teapots have run out of options and are risking lower quotas to manage their losses. “Without cutting output, the losses are unbearable,” one of the Reuters sources said.

Asia, the biggest oil demand center globally, is facing the greatest pain from the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Overall, the war could force up to 6 million bpd cuts to crude runs across Asia in April, as refineries face severe supply disruption with 65% dependency on Middle East crude.

China is better insulated than its neighbous thanks to a stockpile of an estimated 1.4 billion barrels that has been accumulated over the past couple of years. Yet as OilPrice notes, this supply cushion is limited, so China is doing a fine balancing act of keeping the domestic market well supplied to avoid sharp price spikes, especially since China's economy is increasingly dependent on the well-being of its Pacific rim neighbors (and trading partners) who are far less insulated from surging oil prices. 

Tyler Durden Tue, 05/12/2026 - 18:50
Tyler Durden

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