The son of former CIA Director John Brennan was charged on Nov. 13 with transporting child sexual abuse material.
Kyle Owen Brennan, 40, of Warrenton, Virginia, was charged with transportation of child pornography in a criminal complaint filed in federal court, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
The investigation started in 2024 after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children received two Adobe CyberTipline reports alleging that an account registered to Kyle Brennan had been used to upload suspected child sexual abuse material, according to the complaint.
Three files were uploaded through the account on or about April 7, 2024, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit filed with the complaint. Adobe and the center reviewed two of the files and identified them as child sexual abuse material, and the affidavit described all three as depicting “suspected child pornography.” One file appeared to be a morphed image combining the face of a 12-year-old girl with the naked body of another underage girl, the affidavit stated.
On July 24, 2024, the Fauquier County Sheriff’s Office seized Kyle Brennan’s iPhone from him during a traffic stop while he was on his way home and searched his residence in Warrenton, according to the affidavit. The office obtained a warrant to search the phone the next day.
The sheriff’s office referred the case to the FBI on Oct. 2, 2026. That month, records from Apple Inc., the iPhone’s maker, showed that the account used for the Adobe uploads was registered to Kyle Brennan at a Warrenton mailing address. A federal magistrate judge authorized a warrant to examine the phone on Nov. 12, and the FBI reviewed a forensic extraction of its data the next day, the affidavit stated.
The FBI review uncovered approximately 88 images that appeared to depict minor girls, including prepubescent girls, engaged in sexually explicit conduct, as well as a photo of Kyle Brennan’s driver’s license on the device, according to the complaint.
Kyle Brennan appeared in federal court on Nov. 13 following his arrest, according to prosecutors. He faces a mandatory minimum of five years and up to 20 years in prison if convicted.
The Epoch Times was unable to determine if Kyle Brennan has an attorney.
His father, John Brennan, served as CIA director under President Barack Obama. He has been under scrutiny by the Trump administration’s Justice Department over allegations that he lied to Congress during a May 2023 transcribed interview with the House Judiciary Committee regarding an intelligence community assessment of Russian influence during the 2016 election.
John Brennan is also being probed over an alleged conspiracy to deprive President Donald Trump of his rights by investigating alleged Russian interference. The ex-CIA chief has denied any wrongdoing.
Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by John Brennan that sought to require the department to preserve documents tied to the investigations.
In the lawsuit, John Brennan alleged that the government was not preserving records that could bear on a possible prosecution of him, arguing that the records were necessary to “challenge an indictment and protect his due process and equal protection rights not to be vindictively or selectively prosecuted.”
U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb ruled that John Brennan did not demonstrate standing, or the type of harm that would allow the court to intervene. Cobb said that John Brennan was being speculative when he made his case that he would be harmed if the Justice Department brings an indictment against him.
Jackson Richman and Reuters contributed to this report.
