This makes it easy

So when John Brennan called Donald Trump treasonous, he didn't mean Donald Trump committed treason:

Brennan clarified the comment during an interview Friday, after MSNBC's Rachel Maddow said Brennan said the press conference "rose to treason."

The former CIA director disputed the characterization of his "treason" tweet, saying that he felt compelled to make the comment after Trump sided with Putin's denials of Russia's election interference.

"And for Mr. Trump to so cavalierly so dismiss that, yes, sometimes my Irish comes out and in my tweets," Brennan said.  "And I did say that it rises to and exceeds the level of high crimes and misdemeanors and nothing short of treasonous, because he had the opportunity there to be able to say to the world that this is something that happened."

"And that's why I said it was nothing short of treasonous.  I didn't mean that he committed treason.  But it was a term that I used, nothing short of treasonous," he said.

So Trump does treasonous things but doesn't commit treason when he does treasonous things? All righty, then. In other words, John Brennan will say any damn thing, but don't hold him to it. His opinion means nothing. Proceed accordingly.