President Donald Trump’s FBI Director, Kash Patel, has uncovered thousands of documents tied to the Russia probe hidden in burn bags inside a secret room of the bureau’s headquarters.
The documents include the classified annex to former Special Counsel John Durham’s final report, which contains the raw intelligence Durham reviewed during his investigation into the FBI’s handling of the 2016 Trump campaign.
Durham previously concluded that the FBI never should have launched its original Trump-Russia investigation, known as Crossfire Hurricane, citing lack of credible evidence.
A source familiar with the discovery told the Daily Mail the documents were likely overlooked by past directors and may have been destroyed if not for Patel’s ongoing efforts to audit the bureau.
The materials have been handed over to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley (R), chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
The FBI says the documents will be released publicly later today.
Trump gave his full support to the release. “I want everything to be shown, as long as it is fair and reasonable,” he said.
“I would like to see people exposed that might be bad, and we’ll see how that all works out,” Trump said during a press briefing at the White House.
The FBI defines “burn bags” as secure containers used to destroy classified or sensitive documents. These bags are typically incinerated or shredded to prevent leaks.
According to Patel, the stash was found in a hidden room in the Hoover Building that had been sealed off during the tenure of former FBI Director James Comey.
In a podcast appearance last month, Patel said, “When I first got to the bureau, I found a room that Comey and others hid from the world. Full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of.”
Patel claimed access was deliberately locked and concealed from bureau staff. “They said, ‘No one’s ever gonna find this place,’” he told host Joe Rogan.
Since then, Patel and his staff have been combing through the material, searching for evidence related to the original Russia probe and the officials who launched it.
Durham’s 2023 report labeled the FBI’s actions as “seriously flawed” but stopped short of claiming criminal wrongdoing.
It also failed to support Trump’s broader claims that Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation was a “witch hunt” or a total fabrication.
Mueller’s report concluded there was no Trump-Russia conspiracy, but did find evidence of Russian interference that supposedly favored Trump.
Still, Trump has always insisted the probe was politically motivated. “The whole thing is a scam set up by the Democrats,” he said Wednesday.
The new findings could reignite scrutiny of the FBI’s leadership under Comey and the agency’s involvement in election-related investigations.
Patel, once a vocal critic of the FBI, has promised full transparency during his time in office and is continuing efforts to root out what he calls political corruption inside the agency.
Meanwhile, other officials in Trump’s cabinet are surfacing new claims tied to 2016.
Last week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said Russian President Vladimir Putin had dirt on Hillary Clinton and planned to use it after her expected win.
She accused the intelligence community of hiding reports that Russia actually favored Clinton, not Trump, during the 2016 race.
