Patel fires back at media critics after uncovering secret FBI 'burn bags' with classified documents

Fox News

3 hours ago

FBI Director Kash Patel called out the left-wing media Saturday for labeling him a liar over his discovery of a trove of sensitive documents related to the origins of the Trump-Russia probe buried in multiple "burn bags" in a secret room inside the bureau.
Sources previously told Fox News Digital the "burn bag" system is used to destroy documents designated as classified or higher.
Sources also said multiple burn bags were found and filled with thousands of documents. One document FBI officials found in a burn bag, sources said, was the classified annex to former special counsel John Durham's final report, which includes the underlying intelligence he reviewed.
Patel addressed the burn bags on X, reminding people of what he proved in 2017 and 2018.
"In 2017/18, I proved the Steele Dossier was fictitious intelligence, weaponized by corrupt FBI officials to deceive a federal judge and unlawfully spy on then presidential candidate Trump's campaign – all paid for by his opponent," the FBI director said. "The media called me a liar.
"Now I'm the FBI Director: We just uncovered burn bags/room filled with Russia Gate files, including the Durham annex, and declassified them," Patel continued. "Once again, I released the prior FBI's own documents and exposed the truth. The same media is calling me a liar again. Maybe this FBI will release more docs directly, from FBI HQ…so we can see who is lying – wouldn't want to deprive the fake news of more bogus Pulitzers."
The declassification of the classified annex is being done in close coordination between CIA Director John Ratcliffe, Patel, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi and acting National Security Agency Director William Hartman.
The declassified annex will be transmitted to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, who ultimately will release the document to the public.
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."
"Just think about this," Patel told Rogan. "Me, as director of the FBI, the former 'Russiagate guy,' when I first got to the bureau, found a room that 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. Locked the key and hid access and just said, 'No one's ever gonna find this place.'"
Patel and his staff have been working through the documents, some of which are related to sensitive investigations, including the FBI's original Trump–Russia probe, known inside the bureau as Crossfire Hurricane.
It is unclear what the latest documents cover specifically, but sources told Fox News Digital that the most recent discovery was pursuant to an investigative request from Grassley.
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.
Sources told Fox News Digital that Grassley's team is now reviewing the underlying information as part of its investigative work.
As for the other records, Patel's staff is working to turn them over to Congress pursuant to investigative requests by committees of jurisdiction.