Meet the Man Who Inspired Former CIA Director John Brennan's Viral Meltdown

Long-serving intelligence analyst Thomas Speciale never intended to cause a viral ruckus, but it happened this weekend anyway

Long-serving military and intelligence officer Thomas Speciale, who served as a senior advisor to Tulsi Gabbard on counterintelligence issues, wasn’t planning on playing a starring role in a viral Internet video this weekend. The Virginia resident just happened to see a LinkedIn announcement about an event called “The Directors,” to be held at George Mason University on October 30th. It included two characters he spent a fair portion of the last years researching: former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA chief John Brennan.

“I didn’t know the venue,” says Speciale. “I didn’t know who the people were that were running it. I didn’t know anything. I just went, and out of the clear blue, they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re going to take questions.’”

Speciale dropped a doozy on Brennan, who in turn dropped his usual mask of muttering atonal insouciance and blew up, making himself undesirably Internet-famous. It was a revealing episode about a figure rumored to be at the center of a wave of prosecutions related to Russiagate and other intelligence corruption episodes, already begun with the indictment of former FBI chief James Comey for perjury (and to a lesser extent, the indictment of former National Security Adviser John Bolton).

Racket readers are familiar with the slew of Russiagate-related documents released this past summer by Gabbard’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), the Justice Department and FBI under Pam Bondi and Kash Patel, respectively, and by the CIA under John Ratcliffe. Collectively they hinted at future indictments of high-ranking former intelligence officials including Brennan, about whom news broke way back in July that a criminal investigation had been opened involving him.

Unfortunately, the messaging around all of these releases wasn’t always clear, and while the public heard Gabbard use the phrase “treasonous conspiracy,” officials largely weren’t able to explain the breadth of the malfeasance story being investigated. Even the few mainstream efforts at covering the releases hinted at most at a series of picayune-sounding transgressions — a dubious piece of testimony here, a maybe-leak there — as opposed to the epic, years-long political espionage scam at the heart of the probe. Thanks to our Langley Softball Team of a news media, the key players also never had to answer confrontational questions in public. That streak ended with the clash of Speciale and Brennan.

A key issue with Brennan was his approval of the use of the infamous Steele Dossier in the Intelligence Community Assessment on Russian meddling he and Comey helped build at Obama’s request. Speciale asked about this.

Specifically he referenced a pair of emails involving NSA chief Michael Rogers, who wasn’t sure he was “100% comfortable” with the use of “underlying material” like the Steele reports, and a reply from Clapper, Brennan, and Comey which told Rogers this was a “team sport” and he needed to sign off in the spirit of “that’s OUR story and we’re stickin’ to it”:

“A TEAM SPORT”: The crucial email in which four intelligence chiefs agreed to “stick” to a fake story of Russian collusion

Brennan seethed and squirmed while the question was asked by Speciale — no outsider but like him, an intelligence professional — who had “access to the classified ICA.” When Speciale finished asking his question, Brennan blew up:

SPECIALE: There was, there was there was an email that went around from General Clapper, from General Clapper to yourself and… yourself and Comey, et cetera, that basically said, ‘We all gotta get on board with this, otherwise it isn’t gonna work,’ basically. I think that that email puts everybody in the crosshairs. I would like to hear what your justification was for supporting the dossier that was known to be false being used as source material in the second ICA…

BRENNAN: I don’t know who put you up to this.

SPECIALE: Nobody put me up to this, sir. I’m here on my own.

BRENNAN: I don’t know what role you played or who you are, but it’s a bunch of bullshit that you just passed on. (applause) It’s absolute…

SPECIALE: The emails are clear, sir.

BRENNAN: Bullshit.

SPECIALE: The emails are clear.

BRENNAN: Bullshit.

SPECIALE: The emails are clear.

MODERATOR: Next!

SPECIALE: Second question…

MODERATOR: Next, next, next next, next, next…

Speciale tried to shout out a second question about Brennan’s role in signing the “51 Spies” letter about the Hunter Biden laptop story. He was shouted down, but in another unplanned encounter, Speciale got to confront Brennan about the episode after the event.

“I didn’t expect him to come into the reception,” Speciale says. “I look over, and Brennan and Hayden are surrounded by a bunch of college students, and they’re talking, just an open conversation. So I go over and… I’m standing there. He sees me for a good full minute or two. He sees me and he’s kind of trying to get ready to leave anyway. And then I hit him with that question.”

Speciale asked about the implication that the laptop story was Russian disinformation. Brennan, furious, poked Speciale in the chest. “You misrepresented that,” he said, insisting he never called the story disinformation. This is kinda-sorta technically true — they did use the phrase “information operation” — but there can be no doubt about the intent behind the letter, which Politico published under the headline, “Hunter Biden Story is Russian Disinfo, Dozens of Former Intel Officials Say.” Either way, Brennan’s normal cocksure cold-blooded demeanor dissolved again:

This exchange flew around the Internet for good reason. “Wild. Guy’s not usually the poking type,” is how one Congressional source put it. Speciale was also no ordinary crowd member. His point of view is significant because he advised Gabbard and other administration officials not only about this case, but about structural failures within the Intelligence Community that led to Russiagate and other messes.

At what possible offenses are Trump Administration officials currently looking? Why was the “this is OUR story and we’re stickin’ to it” email printed above so important? I asked Speciale this morning about these and other questions: