Breaking: Secret FBI files on Trump–Russia investigation discovered

Written: July 30, 2025, 15:00 ET

FBI Director Kash Patel has uncovered a hidden cache of documents linked to the Trump–Russia investigation, raising fresh questions about internal handling of intelligence during the 2016 election cycle. The discovery, made in a previously unknown secure room at FBI headquarters, includes thousands of pages found in “burn bags” intended for document destruction.

Hidden room inside FBI yields documents tied to Trump–Russia probe

According to sources briefed on the matter, Director Patel and his team located a secure compartmented information facility (SCIF) inside FBI headquarters that had not been previously disclosed to oversight authorities. Inside, they found multiple “burn bags” containing thousands of pages of sensitive material, including intelligence relevant to the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation—the code name for the Trump–Russia probe initiated in 2016.

Among the most notable discoveries was a classified annex to former Special Counsel John Durham’s final report. That annex reportedly contains key intelligence used to assess how and why the FBI opened the investigation into former President Donald Trump’s alleged ties to Russia.

Coordination underway to declassify annex material

The declassification process is being conducted in close coordination with CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and National Security Agency acting Director William Hartman. The annex is expected to be transmitted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who has led oversight into past intelligence community conduct.

Grassley’s office is now reviewing the documents as part of a broader investigation into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane and the handling of foreign intelligence by U.S. agencies in the lead-up to the 2016 election.

Intelligence may suggest premeditated narrative development

Sources familiar with the annex content told Fox News Digital that the U.S. intelligence community had credible foreign sources indicating that elements within the FBI may have played a role in shaping or spreading the Trump–Russia narrative, even before the official probe began. These sources say the annex details intelligence collected in mid-2016 that may have predicted the FBI’s future actions “with alarming specificity.”

One anonymous source stated that the annex will “lend more credibility to the assertion that there was a coordinated plan inside the U.S. government to help the Clinton campaign stir up controversy connecting Trump to Russia.”

Patel: Discovery points to systemic concealment

In an earlier June 2025 podcast interview with Joe Rogan, Patel described the moment he discovered the hidden room. He claimed it was filled with hard drives and physical documents never before cataloged or disclosed. “Comey and others hid it from the world,” Patel alleged, referring to former FBI Director James Comey. “They locked the key and said, ‘No one’s ever gonna find this place.’”

Some of the materials reportedly relate directly to surveillance practices during the Trump campaign. Patel has already transferred a substantial portion of the documents to Chairman Grassley’s office. Additional records are being reviewed for further congressional submission under investigative requests.

Background: Crossfire Hurricane and its fallout

The Trump–Russia investigation, initiated by the FBI in July 2016, focused on alleged coordination between Trump’s campaign and Russian operatives during the presidential election. The probe was eventually taken over by Special Counsel Robert Mueller in 2017 after President Trump dismissed Comey as FBI Director.

Mueller’s final report, released in 2019, concluded that there was insufficient evidence to prove a conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russian government, though it did not exonerate the president on obstruction of justice.

In parallel, the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI), led by then-Chairman Devin Nunes, launched its own probe. Patel served as the lead investigator and later helped expose the controversial use of the Steele dossier in FISA court applications against Trump aide Carter Page.

The Steele dossier—compiled by ex-British intelligence officer Christopher Steele—was commissioned by research firm Fusion GPS and funded indirectly by the Clinton campaign through the law firm Perkins Coie. The dossier formed a key part of the FBI’s application for a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant against Page. Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe later testified that “no surveillance warrant would have been sought” without it.

Congressional memo raised red flags in 2018

A now-famous memo authored by Nunes and Patel in 2018 revealed that the FBI had failed to disclose the dossier’s political origins when applying for FISA warrants. That memo also detailed that Steele was eventually dropped by the FBI for unauthorized disclosures to the media.

Despite criticism at the time, the Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz later confirmed many of the findings, acknowledging significant errors and omissions in the FBI’s surveillance process.

Nunes, now serving as CEO of Trump’s media platform Truth Social, has praised Patel’s role in uncovering these issues. “Kash was instrumental in unraveling the Russia collusion hoax and finding evidence of government malfeasance despite constant attempts by the FBI and DOJ to stonewall our investigation,” he said earlier this year.

Ongoing investigations and potential consequences

Patel, now as FBI Director, is reportedly conducting criminal investigations into former CIA Director John Brennan and former FBI Director James Comey. These inquiries stem from referrals made by intelligence leaders, including former DNI Ratcliffe.

Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee is preparing to release the declassified annex of Durham’s report to the public. That release could provide further insight into how intelligence was used—or possibly misused—by government agencies during the 2016 campaign cycle.

No public comments have yet been received from former FBI Directors Comey or Christopher Wray in response to these developments.