Justice Dept. Questions Former C.I.A. Director for 8 Hours

WASHINGTON — The former C.I.A. director John O. Brennan was told during eight hours of questioning on Friday that he was not the target of any criminal inquiry as part of a divisive Justice Department examination into the Russia investigation’s origins.

During the interview, at C.I.A. headquarters, Mr. Brennan was informed he was “only a witness to events that are under review,” his aide announced. Mr. Brennan oversaw the agency’s inquiry into — and effort to stop — Russia’s campaign to intervene in the 2016 election.

John H. Durham, the United States attorney leading the Justice Department’s investigation, interviewed Mr. Brennan on a “wide range” of subjects, including the agency’s inquiry and the related intelligence report that the Obama administration made public in January 2017.

Democrats have expressed deep skepticism about the Justice Department investigation, suspicious that it will present a biased view of the F.B.I.’s and C.I.A.’s attempts in 2016 to investigate Russian interference. A bipartisan Senate review of the C.I.A.’s work in 2016 this week backed the agency’s conclusions, and some lawmakers have said that report underlines the lengths Russia went to try to influence the election results, a campaign that justifies both the F.B.I.’s and C.I.A.’s efforts to determine what was underway.