FBI Director Kash Patel, in a June interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, revealed that he found a room full of documents and computer hard drives "that no one had ever seen or heard of." (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The declassified annex will be transmitted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who ultimately will release the document to the public.
Sources exclusively briefed Fox News Digital on some of the contents of the classified annex — including that the U.S. intelligence community had credible foreign sources indicating that the FBI would play a role in spreading the alleged Trump–Russia collusion narrative — before the bureau ever launched its controversial Crossfire Hurricane probe.
A source familiar with the contents of the classified annex told Fox News Digital that while it may not have been exactly clear in the moment what the intelligence collection meant, with the benefit of hindsight, it predicted the FBI’s next move "with alarming specificity."
"Ultimately, the release of the classified 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," the source, who was granted anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters that have not yet been made public, told Fox News Digital.
Kash Patel is sworn in during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on his nomination to be FBI Director, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 30, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
Patel has turned the documents over to Grassley.
Grassley has been requesting information related to Durham’s probe. Durham was appointed after then-special counsel Robert Mueller completed his yearslong investigation into the origins of the Trump–Russia probe — including intelligence community malfeasance during and in the aftermath of the 2016 election.
Robert Mueller served as the FBI's sixth director. (Reuters)
In July 2016, during the election cycle, the FBI launched an investigation into whether the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia to influence the outcome of the election. That investigation, inside the bureau, was known as Crossfire Hurricane.
By January 2017, Comey had notified Trump of a dossier, known as the Steele dossier, that contained salacious and unverified allegations about Trump’s purported coordination with the Russian government, a key document prompting the opening of the probe.
The dossier was authored by Christopher Steele, an ex-British intelligence officer, and commissioned by Fusion GPS. Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign hired Fusion GPS during the 2016 election cycle.
Former FBI Director James Comey, left, and current FBI Director Kash Patel. (Getty)
Patel, as chief investigator for Nunes, by February 2018 had discovered widespread government surveillance abuse, including alleged improper surveillance of former Trump campaign aide Carter Page.
"While most members of Congress were ready to ignore the unprecedented civil rights abuses against the Trump campaign and myself, Kash Patel’s training as a top public defender made him the perfect advocate for exposing one of the greatest election interference scandals of all time," Page told Fox News Digital.
Patel was an integral part of the creation of a memo released by then-Chair Nunes in February 2018, which detailed the DOJ's and FBI’s surveillance of Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Nunes and Patel revealed that the infamous anti-Trump dossier funded by Democrats "formed an essential part" of the application to spy on Page.
The memo referred to closed-door testimony from former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, who said that "no surveillance warrant would have been sought" from the FISA court "without the Steele dossier information."
However, when applying for the FISA warrant, the FBI omitted the origins of the dossier, specifically its funding from Clinton, who was Trump’s 2016 presidential opponent.
FBI DIRECTOR KASH PATEL 'INSTRUMENTAL IN UNRAVELING' RUSSIA COLLUSION HOAX, FORMER CHAIR SAYS
The memo also said Steele, who worked as an FBI informant, was eventually cut off from the bureau for what the FBI described as the most serious of violations, "an unauthorized disclosure to the media of his relationship with the FBI."
The memo noted that the FBI and DOJ obtained "one initial FISA warrant" targeting Page and three FISA renewals from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court. The statute required that every 90 days a FISA order on an American citizen "must be reviewed."
The memo revealed that Comey signed three FISA applications for Page, while McCabe, former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates and former Acting Deputy Attorney General Dana Boente signed at least one.
John Durham testifies before the House Judiciary Committee on June 20, 2023. (Screenshot/HouseJudiciaryCommittee)
Nunes was referring to the Justice Department in November 2017 using grand jury subpoenas to secretly obtain the personal email and phone data for Patel and another Nunes staffer on the HPSCI as they were investigating FBI abuse and the Russia probe.
Meanwhile, Patel, now serving as FBI director, has opened a criminal investigation into then-CIA Director John Brennan, after receiving a criminal referral from Ratcliffe; and has opened a criminal investigation into Comey.
As for Grassley’s team, he is expected to release a declassified version of the annex to Durham’s final report, which includes the underlying intelligence he reviewed. The intelligence has previously been classified.
DECLASSIFIED TRUMP-RUSSIA PROBE DOCUMENTS: WHAT TO KNOW
CIA Director John Ratcliffe, joined at center by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, testifies as the Senate Intelligence Committee holds its worldwide threats hearing, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 25, 2025. (J. Scott Applewhite/The Associated Press)
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Brooke Singman is a political correspondent and reporter for Fox News Digital, Fox News Channel and FOX Business.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/patel-found-thousands-sensitive-trump-russia-probe-docs-inside-burn-bags-secret-room-fbi