FBI Director Kash Patel revealed a startling discovery: a secret room within the bureau containing “burn bags” filled with sensitive documents related to the Russia investigation.
According to Patel’s interview with the Daily Mail, among the hidden files is the classified annex to former Special Counsel John Durham’s final report. This annex sheds light on the origins of the FBI’s probe into Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign and includes the key intelligence Durham reviewed.
Durham’s investigation concluded that, based on the information available at the time, the FBI should not have launched the inquiry into alleged ties between Trump campaign officials and Russia.
A well-informed source told the Daily Mail the documents were likely spared destruction due to a misstep by previous FBI directors. The source added that if the bureau hadn’t meticulously examined every item it encountered, this crucial trove might have remained undiscovered.
The FBI spokesperson confirmed that the findings will be officially released on Wednesday after being handed over to Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
President Trump expressed his support for making the recently discovered information public.
“I want everything to be shown, as long as it is fair and reasonable,” he told reporters at the White House. “I would like to see people exposed that might be bad, and we’ll see how that all works out.”
However, Trump added, if the FBI had anything incriminating, “they would have released it.”
He reiterated his long-held claim that Democrats were behind the entire investigation. “The whole thing is a scam. It is a scam set up by the Democrats,” he said.
Fox News was the first to break news of the discovery.
For context, a ‘burn bag’ is a secure container used by government agencies to destroy sensitive or classified documents, typically by shredding or burning, to prevent unauthorized access.
Once one of the FBI’s fiercest critics, Director Kash Patel has begun overhauling the agency, including reassigning top agents and terminating others. At the start of his tenure, he promised a “wave of transparency,” particularly regarding the probe into alleged ties between Trump’s 2016 campaign and Russia.
This investigation, code-named ‘Crossfire Hurricane,’ was a counterintelligence probe examining potential connections between Russia and Trump’s campaign.
According to former Special Counsel John Durham’s report, the inquiry was “seriously flawed,” though it found no evidence of criminal conduct. The report also contradicted Trump’s claims that Robert Mueller’s investigation was a “hoax” or “witch hunt.”
Mueller’s findings stated that the FBI did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government’s election interference, but it did confirm Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election—efforts that appeared to benefit Trump.
Despite this, Trump has repeatedly called the FBI’s investigation a witch hunt. His supporters throughout the government have sought proof to support this assertion.
In a June interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Patel claimed he uncovered a secret room packed with computer hard drives and documents “that no one had ever seen or heard of.”
“Just think about this,” Patel said. “Me, as director of the FBI—the former ‘Russiagate guy’—when I first got to the bureau, found a room that [former FBI director James] Comey and others hid from the world in the Hoover Building, full of documents and computer hard drives that no one had ever seen or heard of. They locked the key, hid access, and just said, ‘No one’s ever gonna find this place.’”
Since then, Patel and his team have been reviewing the contents of that room.
Meanwhile, more Trump allies are stepping forward with election-related revelations. Last week, Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s former head of national intelligence, claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin possessed classified material on Hillary Clinton intended for use against her if she had won the presidency.
Gabbard said intelligence reports indicated that Russia actually wanted Clinton to win in 2016. “This report shows Putin … held back from leaking compromising material on Hillary Clinton prior to the election, instead planning to release it after the election,” she explained.
She added, “The intelligence community intentionally suppressed intelligence that showed Putin was saving the most damaging material that he had in his possession about Hillary Clinton until after her potential and likely victory.”