FBI launches probes into former FBI, CIA directors, Fox News reports

WASHINGTON, July 8 (Reuters) - The FBI has launched criminal probes into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey, Fox News Digital reported on Tuesday, citing sources.

The probes are over alleged wrongdoing related to past government investigations about claims of Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections in which President Donald Trump defeated former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the news report said.

The CIA and the Justice Department had no immediate comment. The FBI declined to comment. Reuters has not independently verified the probes.

The scope of the criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey was unclear, the report added. Trump-nominated CIA Director John Ratcliffe referred Brennan, who served in that role under former Democratic President Barack Obama, for potential prosecution, according to the report.

A criminal investigation does not necessarily result in charges. Brennan did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Comey could not immediately be reached.

Fox said its sources were from the Justice Department but did not specify the number of sources.

"I am glad to see that the Department of Justice is opening up this investigation," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News' "Jesse Watters Primetime" show in an interview.

The probes reportedly target two former officials who have long drawn the ire of Trump and his supporters for their role in investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Comey led the FBI when authorities began a criminal investigation in 2016 into potential coordination between the Trump campaign and the Russian government to influence the election. Trump fired Comey in 2017 early in his first term after Comey publicly confirmed Trump was under investigation.

The probe was then taken over by former Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who found no evidence of a criminal conspiracy between Trump's 2016 campaign and Russia.

Trump railed against the investigation for years and has repeatedly dismissed it as the "Russia hoax."

Brennan led the CIA when U.S. intelligence assessed, in a report made public in January 2017, that Russian President Vladimir Putin sought to sway the 2016 U.S. vote in favor of Trump.

A CIA review released last week found flaws in the preparation of the 2017 assessment, but it did not contest its underlying conclusion.

The Fox News report on the investigations broke as Trump's top officials at the FBI and Justice Department faced online criticism from some Trump supporters for concluding that there was no evidence to support long-held conspiracy theories about the death of accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

During Trump's first term, the Justice Department appointed a separate special counsel, John Durham, to examine any missteps in the FBI's Russia investigation. Durham brought charges against three lower-level figures who worked on the probe or provided information to investigators, but did not find evidence of a conspiracy to target Trump.