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Kyle Brennan, 40, the son of former CIA Director John Brennan, was arrested by FBI agents on Friday at his workplace in Herndon, Virginia, and charged in federal court with transporting child pornography, according to court documents and a U.S. law enforcement official.
A criminal complaint filed Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia charges Brennan, of Warrenton, Virginia, with one felony count of transportation of child pornography. An FBI review of his cellphone found approximately 88 images that appeared to depict minor girls, including prepubescent girls, engaged in sexually explicit conduct, according to a sworn affidavit supporting the complaint. The case, United States v. Brennan, case number 1:26-mj-00444, is assigned to Magistrate Judge William E. Fitzpatrick.
The investigation began in 2024 with a tip to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Adobe submitted two CyberTipline reports to the centre in April and June 2024 after files suspected to be child sexual abuse material were uploaded to an account linked to Brennan. Virginia authorities searched his home in July 2024, and his iPhone was obtained during a traffic stop on July 24, 2024. The case was not referred to the FBI until October 2, 2026. The FBI executed a search warrant on his phone on Thursday night, and agents took him into custody at his workplace on Friday afternoon. He was scheduled to make his first appearance in federal court later on Friday. It was not immediately clear whether he was represented by an attorney.
If convicted, Brennan faces a mandatory minimum of five years in federal prison and up to 20 years.
The complaint states that the investigation into Kyle Brennan began independently of the Justice Department's investigation into his father. John Brennan, who led the CIA from 2013 to 2017 under President Barack Obama, has been under investigation for more than a year as part of a wider probe into whether law enforcement and intelligence officials violated President Donald Trump's civil rights in earlier investigations of the president. That investigation has stalled in recent weeks after senior prosecutors overseeing it resigned, and no charges have been brought against the former CIA director. John Brennan has denied wrongdoing, and his lawyers have accused prosecutors of improperly targeting him at Trump's direction. He was subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury last month, but his appearance was postponed after Joseph diGenova, the Justice Department official leading the investigation, resigned in September.
A criminal complaint contains allegations only. Kyle Brennan has not been convicted of anything, and he is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.