Kyle Brennan, the 40-year-old son of former CIA Director John Brennan, was taken into custody by FBI agents at his workplace in Herndon, Virginia on Friday afternoon and charged with a felony count of transportation of child pornography, the Daily Mail reports.
According to a sworn affidavit entered into court on Friday, the FBI's review of Brennan's iPhone "observed approximately 88 images that appeared to depict minor girls, including prepubescent girls, engaged in sexually explicit conduct."
The affidavit also describes an image of a female toddler, and another of a pubescent girl whose wrists and ankles were bound and whose mouth was gagged.
The criminal complaint was signed by a Virginia judge on Friday, and Brennan was scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia later in the day. The FBI executed a search warrant on his personal cell phone Thursday night, according to a law enforcement source cited by the Mail.
If convicted, Brennan faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years in federal prison.
Police reports say the iPhone was obtained during a traffic stop on July 24, 2024 - but the investigation wasn't referred to the FBI until Oct. 2, 2026, more than two years later.
The arrest comes one week after the US attorney overseeing the Justice Department's so-called "grand conspiracy" probe resigned without bringing a single charge. Jason Reding Quiñones, who ran the Southern District of Florida, stepped down on Nov. 6, days after the midterms, after DOJ leadership reportedly admonished him in private meetings over his lack of progress.
John Brennan, who ran the CIA under President Barack Obama, is a "subject" of that probe, which is examining whether Obama-era officials conspired to manufacture the Trump-Russia collusion narrative and deprive Trump of his civil rights. He is also a "target" of a narrower investigation into whether he lied to Congress in 2023 about the intelligence community's assessment that Russia sought to help Trump in 2016, according to a sworn declaration from his attorney Ken Wainstein, as we reported in September. Brennan has vehemently denied the allegation.
Brennan was subpoenaed to appear before a federal grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida on Oct. 15, but that appearance was postponed. A federal judge in Washington has since dismissed his lawsuit seeking to force the DOJ to preserve records from the investigations, ruling that he lacked standing.
In April, career national security prosecutor Maria Medetis Long was removed from the Brennan investigation after raising concerns about it. Joe diGenova, who replaced her, resigned on Sept. 10, telling the New York Post, "If you want indictments where there's no evidence, you have an ethical problem." Weeks later, the Daily Mail reported that Trump loyalist Kurt Olsen and at least six other prosecutors had left the investigation, following pressure from DOJ officials in Washington to secure indictments before the midterm elections.
The Justice Department has rejected any suggestion that top officials pressured prosecutors to bring charges before the inquiry was complete.
Updated 1552ET