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By Katelyn Polantz, Hannah Rabinowitz, Evan Perez, CNN

(CNN) — Justice Department prosecutors leading an investigation into former CIA Director John Brennan are facing increasing pressure from top Justice officials to bring criminal charges against him after the department has flailed in trying to punish President Donald Trump’s perceived enemies, people briefed on the matter told CNN in recent days.

Prosecutors in the Miami US attorney’s office have been leading the Brennan probe, which relates to testimony the ex-intelligence chief gave to Congress in 2023 and the Russia investigation years earlier, issuing two rounds of subpoenas to several witnesses.

Yet the push for charges has run into career prosecutors raising concerns in southern Florida, with some viewing the potential case as relatively weak.

Brennan’s lawyers have been bracing for a possible indictment for months now, which has not materialized.

Justice officials and US Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones made a push in January to bring a case against him, according to two people briefed on the matter, but some career prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida resisted the pressure.

Those career prosecutors are facing a new wave of pressure now, one of the sources said, and are struggling to delay bringing the case to a grand jury.

At first, the prosecutors gathered documents late last year from Brennan and other former intelligence officials. The subpoenas specifically sought information about a 2017 intelligence report on Russian meddling in the election that Brennan worked on, and which he spoke about in his 2023 congressional testimony.

A second round of subpoenas went in January to several former government officials and sought years of documents, including government records on the 2016 Russia investigation the people would no longer have access to, two people familiar with the investigation told CNN recently. At least one former intelligence community official has been interviewed in the probe, one source said.

Though Brennan could still face grand jury activity, the investigation also could fall apart.

His lawyers have said accusations of perjury, for instance, are without any merit.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment for this story, saying it does not comment on ongoing investigations.

Hanging over their heads

Several of the probes launched into the actions of the president’s political foes have failed when presented to a grand jury over the last year. Other investigations have been opened but have yet to result in criminal charges — hanging for months over the heads of their targets.

But even cases that never materialize can be disruptive to subjects’ lives, as people who believe they are being investigated by prosecutors and a grand jury are fearful of harm to their public reputations.

Lawyers’ fees add up, though some people in Trump’s most politically charged criminal cases are receiving low- or no-cost legal help or financial backing from others, according to several sources in the legal industry in DC.

While that’s true in any administration, the Trump Justice Department has more aggressively pursued Democratic political figures or individuals Trump and other top administration officials have said publicly they’d like to charge.

Trump in November called Brennan, Former FBI Director Com

Por Paula Hancocks, CNN

Irán advirtió que cualquier ataque contra el país desencadenaría un conflicto regional.

Estados Unidos e Israel no le creyeron o consideraron que era un riesgo que valía la pena correr. Once días después del inicio de la guerra, son las naciones del golfo Pérsico las que están pagando el precio, y ninguna más que los Emiratos Árabes Unidos.

Según el Ministerio de Defensa iraní, más de 1.700 misiles y drones han sido disparados hacia los Emiratos Árabes Unidos desde el inicio de la guerra, y más del 90 % de ellos han sido derribados por interceptores, aviones de combate y helicópteros.

El presidente de Estados Unidos, Donald Trump, admitió la semana pasada en una entrevista con Jake Tapper de la CNN que la disposición de Irán a atacar a sus vecinos árabes había sido su mayor sorpresa de la guerra.

El domingo, el Cuerpo de la Guardia Revolucionaria Islámica de Irán afirmó que estaba utilizando el 60 % de su potencia de fuego contra lo que denominó “bases” e “intereses estratégicos” estadounidenses en los países árabes vecinos, y el resto contra Israel.

Se han disparado más proyectiles contra los Emiratos Árabes Unidos que contra cualquier otro país, aparentemente incluso más que contra Israel, que junto con Estados Unidos inició esta guerra. Varios han impactado en viviendas, oficinas y carreteras de zonas urbanas densamente pobladas, matando a cuatro personas, todas civiles.

“Dubái es realmente el epicentro de la globalización”, afirma Fawaz Gerges, profesor de Relaciones Internacionales en la London School of Economics. “Los líderes iraníes consideran a Dubái como la base del sistema económico global occidental… (Su estrategia) sacude la economía mundial, no solo a Dubái y los Emiratos Árabes Unidos”.

La percepción es clave. Las imágenes de un incendio frente a un hotel internacional en Dubái o de un ataque en el recinto del Aeropuerto Internacional de Dubái captan la atención internacional mientras decenas de miles de expatriados y turistas intentan abandonar el país. Nadie resultó herido en ninguno de estos ataques, pero el impacto psicológico puede ser significativo.

Gerges señala la ironía de que los Emiratos Árabes Unidos hayan servido como un salvavidas económico para Irán durante años, mientras Teherán se enfrentaba a uno de los regímenes de sanciones más severos de la historia. Un funcionario de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos declaró a CNN que las relaciones se normalizarían eventualmente, pero que podría tomar décadas restablecer la confianza.

EAU es uno de los principales socios comerciales de Irán: ocupa el segundo lugar después de China. Los negocios entre ambos países se habían expandido incluso mientras Estados Unidos endurecía las sanciones contra el régimen. El comercio bilateral se situó en US$ 28.000 millones en 2024, según la Organización Mundial del Comercio.

Alrededor de medio millón de iraníes consideran a los Emiratos Árabes Unidos su hogar.

Irán cita la alianza estratégica de décadas de Abu Dhabi con Washington como justificación de los ataques. Designados como un “socio importante en materia de defensa” por Estados Unidos el año pasado, los Emiratos Árabes Unidos han dejado claro en quién confían para su seguridad.

Han invertido decenas de miles de millones de dólares en aviones de combate, helicópteros y sistemas de defensa aérea estadounidenses, que ahora participan activamente en la protección de los emiratíes y expatriados del ataque sin precedentes de Irán.

Sanam Vakil, de Chatham House, afirma que los Emiratos Árabes Unidos cumplen con varios requisitos de la República Islámica en su deseo de infligir dolor a Estados Unidos y sus aliados.

“Al atacar a los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, Irán no solo ataca a un socio clave de EE.UU., sino que también demuestra que un país que alberga a millones de expatriados y sirve como un importante centro de las

By Michael Williams, CNN

(CNN) — Authorities in New Mexico launched a search this week of a sprawling ranch formerly owned by convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, which has come under renewed interest after allegations surrounding the estate were included in files recently released by the US Justice Department.

The New Mexico Department of Justice announced the Monday morning search of the property, known as Zorro Ranch, in a brief statement posted to its website. It is part of the criminal investigation announced by state authorities last month into allegations of illegal activity surrounding the ranch at the time Epstein, who died in 2019, owned it.

The statement did not indicate whether anything of interest has been found so far during the search or how long it is expected to continue.

The ranch had previously not been subject to the same level of law enforcement scrutiny as Epstein’s other properties in New York, Palm Beach and the Caribbean. But following the release of troves of federal government files related to Epstein, New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez ordered the reopening of the state’s criminal investigation into the property, which he said had been closed in 2019 at the request of federal prosecutors.

Included in the millions of files released by the Justice Department in late January was a 2019 email received by a local radio host that alleged that “somewhere in the hills outside the Zorro, two foreign girls were buried on orders of Jeffrey and Madam G.” That allegation is unverified, but it is also not clear to what extent it had been investigated by law enforcement before the recent renewed interest in Epstein.

The host, Eddy Aragon, previously told CNN that he believed the email was sent to him by someone who worked on the ranch but wouldn’t disclose who he thought the person was. He said he tried sending an email to the address, but it had bounced back. The files show he forwarded the allegations to a redacted email address four days after receiving it.

The radio host added that he went to the local FBI office with the email and forwarded it to a local FBI agent.

The email prompted Stephanie Garcia Richard, New Mexico’s commissioner of public lands, to send a letter last month asking the state Department of Justice to investigate the claims. She told CNN in February that the special investigative office of the New Mexico DOJ later reached out to her for “background information” on state lands and her agency’s processes and documents it released in 2019.

Apart from the criminal inquiry, the state’s House of Representatives last month voted to create a bipartisan “Truth Commission” looking into allegations of criminal activity surrounding the ranch. The commission has the power to issue subpoenas and compel the attendance of witnesses at its hearings.

The property is currently owned by the family of Don Huffines, a businessman and former Texas state senator who is currently running for state comptroller. Huffines had previously said he would cooperate with any law enforcement investigation surrounding the ranch. The New Mexico Department of Justice said in its statement that the current owners and staff are coope