WASHINGTON — Former CIA Director John Brennan’s lawyers told a judge that he faces a “real” threat of prosecution under the Trump administration, saying he’s received a subpoena to testify before a grand jury in Florida.

Brennan and his attorneys appeared in Washington federal court on Monday to argue for a judicial order requiring top Trump administration officials to preserve records about ongoing criminal probes, claiming there’s a significant risk material will be destroyed and undercut his ability to fight a future indictment.

The Justice Department has been moving ahead with a controversial investigation into whether Brennan and other former government officials conspired in previous years to violate President Donald Trump’s civil rights, Bloomberg News previously reported.

Prosecutors appear to be zeroing in on investigative work under prior Democratic administrations, in particular in relation to an intelligence assessment on Russia’s attempts to interfere in the 2016 election. Brennan has denied wrongdoing and sued the administration in July to preserve records in the case, arguing any indictment would be an unlawfully vindictive or selection prosecution effort.

Brennan’s attorney Kenneth Wainstein filed a written declaration ahead of the hearing alerting the judge that Brennan had received a subpoena last week to testify before a grand jury in Fort Pierce, Florida, in mid-October. Bloomberg News previously reported that Brennan had been swept up along with other former officials in the probe, which is being run out of the U.S. attorney’s office in Miami.

Wainstein indicated that the Justice Department has two lines of inquiry into Brennan. He wrote that a DOJ official told him that the subpoena relates to a “wide-ranging conspiracy” probe into whether Trump’s civil rights were violated, as opposed to a narrower – but “still viable” investigation into whether Brennan lied to Congress about his role in producing the intelligence report on Russia’s actions ahead of the 2016 election.

U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb didn’t immediately hand down her decision on Brennan’s request, noting that there isn’t an active prosecution yet and there are already laws compelling federal agencies to preserve records and options for courts to sanction the government for destroying or withholding evidence from the defense.

Brennan’s team contends the Trump administration has a track record of problems with preserving records – such as officials using messaging platforms set to auto-delete – as well as a pattern of aggressively pursuing investigations and prosecutions against the president’s perceived political enemies.

Justice Department lawyer Jeremy Newman argued Brennan lacks legal standing to bring the case and failed to show he faces “irreparable harm” if Cobb doesn’t intervene. Newman said Brennan’s claims are based too much on speculation about what might happen in the future – whether he will be indicted and whether the judge presiding over that case will determine he’s entitled to seek evidence to support a defense of vindictive or selective prosecution.

The case is Brennan v. Blanche, 26-cv-2323, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia (Washington).

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