March 27, 2025 (EIRNS)—U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of all FBI files related to the agency’s investigation into his first election campaign’s alleged contacts with Russia. The FBI launched the “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation in July 2016, ostensibly to examine whether then presidential candidate Trump or members of his campaign were colluding or coordinating with Moscow to influence the election.
In a March 25 memorandum, Trump directed the Attorney General to make the materials available to the public “immediately.” And in a video posted the same day on Truth Social, Trump said, after signing the order: “This was total weaponization. It’s a disgrace … but now you’ll be able to see for yourselves.” Addressing journalists, he prefaced: “This gives the media the right to check it—you probably won’t bother, because you’re not going to like what you see.”
Previously, in January 2021, Trump had ordered a full declassification of Crossfire Hurricane, but the documents were never released. According to a 2023 CNN report, a binder containing highly classified information later went missing. Of note, the present head of the FBI, Kash Patel, back in 2017 was the lead investigator for Rep. Devin Nunes’ House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, in which his “Nunes Memo” concluded that the FBI had abused their authority in the Russiagate operation. Patel is certainly acquainted with where some of the bodies are buried, and how some of the coverups were carried out.
“Crossfire Hurricane” was prompted by the infamous “Steele Dossier” of “former” MI6 agent Christopher Steele. His series of memos—basically unverified second-hand rumors and gossip on Trump—began in June 2016. Also at that time, the director of Britain’s GCHQ Robert Hannigan flew to Washington to brief CIA director John Brennan on the “Russiagate” project, one that London had been preparing months before.
On July 28, 2016, Brennan briefed President Barack Obama, VP Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and former DNI James Clapper on the project. Brennan’s handwritten notes on that briefing were made public by John Ratcliffe, then Trump’s DNI, now the Director of the CIA. However, the CIA had heavily redacted that memo. The only two lines not redacted more than justify the full disclosure. They read: “Cite alleged approval by Hillary Clinton on 26 July on a proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to vilify Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security services”; and, “Any evidence of collaboration between Trump campaign & Russians.” (A prime candidate for the “foreign policy advisor” Brennan referenced might well be Jake Sullivan, a former State Department official, who was then Clinton’s senior advisor in her campaign.) The present order by Trump will not please the Russiagate circles of Hannigan, Steele, and Brennan.
Immediately after Brennan’s briefing, the CIA sent a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL) to then-FBI Director James Comey and then-Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok, with the subject line: “Crossfire Hurricane.” It stated: “The following information is provided for the exclusive use of your bureau for background investigative action or lead purposes as appropriate. Per FBI verbal request, CIA provides the below examples of information the CROSSFIRE HURRICANE fusion cell has gleaned to date. An exchange [REDACTED] discussing US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton’s approval of a plan concerning US presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering US elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server.” The FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” was officially in gear by July 31, 2016.
Of some note: Britain’s former MI6 Chief Richard Dearlove, according to the Feb. 16, 2018 Washington Post, told Steele in London’s posh Garrick Club that Trump “reminded him of a predicament he had faced years earlier, when he [Dearlove] was chief of station for British intelligence in Washington [1991-93] and alerted U.S. authorities to British information that a vice presidential hopeful had once been in communication with the Kremlin.” Apparently, that was sufficient to do the job on the VP wannabe, but not so much with Donald Trump.
