Russiagate docs Patel found after Comey FBI 'locked the key' may aid 'grand conspiracy' inquiry

The FBI's decision to open a probe that treats the last decade of political weaponization of law enforcement and intelligence agencies as an ongoing criminal conspiracy is being cheered by lawmakers and could be aided by Director Kash Patel's recent discovery of a room where the bureau had "hidden" evidence from public and congressional view.

Patel's discovery of the evidence "vault" or "lockbox" as he called it on a recent interview with podcaster Joe Rogan and the opening of the "overarching conspiracy" probe occurred around the same time this spring, officials told Just the News.

The discovery that the FBI stashed away evidence in politically hot probes like Russigate could help prosecutors convince a grand jury that government officials were engaged in a coverup or an effort to deprive civil liberties, experts said.

"I think it's part of a coordinated strategy to deprive people of their constitutional rights to speech and to petition the government for redress of agreements and also the right to counsel," former Trump attorney John Eastman told the John Solomon Reports podcast on Monday. 

And while the discovery of the evidence vault and the emergence of the conspiracy probe are shrouded in some secrecy, their existence has buoyed Republicans in Congress who long believed prosecution of government actors behind scandals like Russiagate and Biden family corruption was warranted.

"They put America through unbelievable, really historic political turmoil, knowing that the entire narrative was completely false," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., declared Monday, after word of the conspiracy case surfaced in a Just the News report.

"I felt these people were criminals for many years now," Johnson told the Just the News, No Noise TV show. "I mean, the fact that they knew this...the whole Russiagate was a conspiracy hatched by the Clinton campaign back in 2016. President Obama was briefed on that. I mean, they all knew."

Just the News reported Monday that the FBI quietly launched an investigation into a decade of Democratic Party and "deep-state" antics ranging from ginning up the Trump-Russia collusion to examining special counsel Jack Smith's pursuit of Trump.

That news could open the door for the appointment of a special prosecutor to examine whether the different events support a presentation to a grand jury regarding a criminal conspiracy to influence three consecutive presidential elections to the benefit of Democrats and the detriment of Trump.

Previously hidden documents or information with potential impact being suddenly discovered is a developing pattern, and the release of that material is likely to have major repercussions. 

The FBI’s “grand conspiracy” case was opened several weeks ago, Just the News reported, and it could get a significant boost if Trump were to declassify two yet-classified troves of evidence that identify key pieces of the alleged conspiracy dating back to the summer of 2016, according to several people directly familiar with the inquiry who spoke to Just the News on a condition of anonymity.

Patel said in a mid-May joint interview with FBI deputy director Dan Bongino that “as much as we know about Crossfire Hurricane, he and I just found out more last week, and we’re continuing to work with Congress to put those documents out.” 

The FBI chief said in that interview on Sunday Morning Futures on Fox News that “that’s how vindictive and vicious the former leadership structure was. Not only did they bastardize the FISA process and lie to the American public, they withheld and hid documentation and put it in rooms where people weren’t supposed to look. And it’s a good thing that we’re here now to clean it up, and you’re about to see a wave of transparency.”

Bongino, the deputy director, accompanied Patel in that interview and told Fox News' Maria Bartromo that the room containing the alleged Russiagate information was “not mentioned” to him nor to Patel when they took over the bureau.

Pieces of the puzzle

Two key clusters of information may determine the direction in which the Department of Justice goes: a classified annex to a 2018 report tied to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz's probe of Hillary Clinton’s improper email server, and a second classified annex from Special Counsel John Durham's final report in 2023 about the DOJ's "Crossfire Hurricane" project. 

Durham's secret annex has long been sought by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and the annex may show that credible information about possible wrongdoing was intentionally ignored by the FBI.

On top of all of this, CIA Director John Ratcliffe sent a criminal referral to Patel earlier this month related to possible criminality by Obama's CIA Director John Brennan, sources familiar with Ratcliffe's actions who declined to be named told Just the News last week.

A review by the CIA released earlier this month critiqued the actions taken by Brennan.

Ratcliffe said that Brennan, Comey and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper were “excessively involved” in drafting the assessment, did so in a “chaotic,” “atypical” and “markedly unconventional” process, and rushed to complete it.  

He added that "Multiple senior CIA managers opposed including the [Steele] dossier, asserting it did not meet even basic tradecraft standards. Despite these objections,” Ratcliffe stated, “Brennan showed a preference for narrative consistency over analytical soundness.”

The bigger picture comes into focus

All of this — combined with the secretive documents recently unearthed at the Hoover Building and brought to the attention of Patel — may provide guideposts for the newly-revealed FBI investigation. It will likely be up to Attorney General Pam Bondi to decide if a criminal prosecution — or a special prosecutor — is warranted.

Patel revealed a key detail about the non-public Crossfire Hurricane evidence when speaking on the Joe Rogan Experience podcast in early June. Patel called the Trump-Russia collusion hoax “the biggest political criminal scheme ever perpetrated by portions of the FBI leadership and other elements of the intelligence community.”

Rogan let out a shocked “what?” as Patel explained that “my guys are going through that right now.” He said there was “a lot of stuff” to review.

“These guys were so arrogant, they would write everything down. And I found the documents,” Patel said, adding, “They’re so arrogant, they think, ‘No one’s going to catch us. I’m going to write everything down. We’re going to put it in a lockbox, we’re going to put it in a vault, and no one’s going to find it.’ Well, you know what? I found the vault and now I’m going to work.”

Patel addressed a potential barrier to investigation brought by the five-year statute of limitations on lying to Congress, saying that the crimes could potentially be prosecuted if they were tied to a broader conspiracy.

“So generally the statute of limitations on crimes for process crimes that we call them is five years. But if you can time it to an overarching conspiracy, there is no statute of limitations,” the FBI director said.

“So if there was more egregious conduct that no one knew about before that we are just finding and we are investigating, then we’ll have to re-look at it. The one thing we will do is put out all that information to the American public once we actually get through it, and we’ll give it to Congress.”

Patel added: “And if we can work with our partners at DOJ to come up with a prosecution, that’ll be their decision. We’ll do it. … If we can hold people accountable in terms of indictments, then we’ll work with our partners at DOJ.”

DOJ’s “Weaponization Working Group” may scrutinize lawfare conspiracy

An executive order issued by Trump and a memo by Attorney General Pam Bondi both regarding the end of “weaponization” within the Justice Department could provide guidance in pursuing a lawfare conspiracy case.

Trump’s executive order on “Ending the Weaponization of The Federal Government” was issued on Inauguration Day in January.

“The American people have witnessed the previous administration engage in a systematic campaign against its perceived political opponents, weaponizing the legal force of numerous Federal law enforcement agencies and the Intelligence Community against those perceived political opponents in the form of investigations, prosecutions, civil enforcement actions, and other related actions,” Trump said. 

“These actions appear oriented more toward inflicting political pain than toward pursuing actual justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

Bondi’s follow-up DOJ-wide memo on “Restoring the Integrity and Credibility of the Department of Justice” was issued on February 5, and it established the “Weaponization Working Group” which Bondi said “will conduct a review of the activities of all departments and agencies exercising civil or criminal enforcement authority of the United States over the last four years […] to identify instances where a department's or agency's conduct appears to have been designed to achieve political objectives or other improper aims rather than pursuing justice or legitimate governmental objectives.”

Bondi also wrote that the DOJ “must take immediate and overdue steps to restore integrity and credibility with the public that we are charged with protecting, and to ensure that the Department's personnel are ready and willing to faithfully implement the policy agenda of the duly elected President of the United States.”

Trump and Bondi's work cited with approval

Trump’s executive order and Bondi’s memo may very well have real teeth. They were cited by the DOJ when it sought to intervene in a state-level Colorado prosecution against former Mesa County Clerk and Recorder Tina Peters.

Peters was found guilty in August 2024 on “7 of 10 criminal charges related to a security breach that occurred in the spring of 2021 in the elections office she oversaw,” according to Colorado Newsline. The outlet reported in October 2024 that Peters was sentenced to nine years in prison, with the judge who handed down the sentence repeatedly calling her a “charlatan.”

Peters has appealed her case, and she filed an application for a writ of habeas corpus in February.

Yaakov Roth, then the acting assistant attorney general for DOJ’s Civil Division, filed a statement of interest with the federal court in March, citing Trump’s order and Bondi’s memo.

"Ms. Peters is currently incarcerated while pursuing a direct appeal of her underlying nonviolent convictions and combined nine-year sentence,” the DOJ said. “The Application explains that Ms. Peters suffers from serious health issues and that, while incarcerated, her physical and mental health have deteriorated. Reasonable concerns have been raised about various aspects of Ms. Peters’ case.”

The Justice Department has shown that it is willing to turn Trump’s order and Bondi’s memo on “weaponization” into concrete legal action, and observers await Patel's disclosure — to Grassley or the public, or both — to see a path forward.