Ex-C.I.A. Chief Criticizes Silence of Top Republicans on Russian Interference

Mr. Brennan portrayed himself in the excerpt as deeply skeptical of Mr. Trump and his ability to keep secrets. He said that even before the election he was convinced of Mr. Trump’s “dishonesty, unabashed self-aggrandizement and demagogic rhetoric.”

The congressional briefing occurred a day after President Barack Obama was told about the intelligence agencies’ assessment and just hours before officials briefed Mr. Trump, then the president-elect. He expressed skepticism and doubts about the findings on Russian interference.

Mr. Brennan wrote that he had decided ahead of time not to share details with Mr. Trump about how the C.I.A. learned about Russian intentions or interference efforts. Sources and methods of information-gathering are among the intelligence agencies’ most closely held material.

“I had serious doubts that Donald Trump would protect our nation’s most vital secrets,” Mr. Brennan wrote.

During the briefing, Mr. Trump’s questions “revealed that he was uninterested in finding out what the Russians had done or holding them to account,” Mr. Brennan wrote. Instead, Mr. Brennan said, Mr. Trump seemed intent on challenging the intelligence and the agencies’ judgment that Russia had interfered in the election.

Mr. Brennan said in the book that he believed that Mr. Trump was seeking to learn what the C.I.A. knew and how the agency had gathered the intelligence. “This deeply troubled me, as I worried about what he might do with the information he was being given,” Mr. Brennan wrote.

Soon after he stepped down as the C.I.A. director, Mr. Brennan began criticizing Mr. Trump vociferously in appearances on MSNBC, where he became a contributor, and on Twitter. In 2018, after Mr. Trump’s joint news conference with Mr. Putin where he expressed skepticism about Russian interference in the election, Mr. Brennan wrote that the president’s comments were “nothing short of treasonous.”