Trump Makes FBI Documents on Russia Investigation Public

The investigation into alleged ties between the US president and Russia, known as Crossfire Hurricane, was initiated by the FBI in 2016.

US President Donald Trump has instructed the declassification of all FBI documents tied to the agency's probe into alleged contacts between his first election campaign and Russia.

The FBI initiated the Crossfire Hurricane investigation in July 2016 to determine if Trump, who was then a presidential candidate, or members of his campaign were colluding or cooperating with Moscow to sway the election outcome.

In a memorandum made public on Tuesday, Trump directed the Attorney General to promptly make these materials accessible to the public.

The impetus behind Crossfire Hurricane was the Steele Dossier, a collection of unverified claims regarding Trump’s supposed connections to Russia. This dossier was assembled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and was reportedly funded by the Hillary Clinton campaign.

Crossfire Hurricane preceded the appointment of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, whose subsequent investigation, commonly referred to as Russiagate, established that there was no evidence of collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russian government.

In 2023, John Durham, the special counsel designated by the US Justice Department to investigate the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane inquiry, concluded that the FBI and DOJ had “failed to uphold their mission” by relying on biased sources for surveillance on Trump.

Durham criticized the FBI for displaying a “serious lack of analytical rigor,” especially in dealing with information from politically connected sources.

It was also disclosed that the Steele Dossier had been utilized by the FBI to acquire court authorization to surveil Trump’s campaign. In 2019, Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz reported that the FBI had committed “basic, fundamental, and serious errors” in its warrant application.

Both Crossfire Hurricane and Mueller’s Russiagate investigation cast a long shadow over Trump’s presidency, with media allegations of “Russian collusion” continuing even after Mueller’s report found no supporting evidence.

In a Tuesday video posted on Truth Social, Trump remarked after signing the declassification order, “This was total weaponization. It’s a disgrace…but now you’ll be able to see for yourselves.”

He further commented to journalists, “You probably won’t bother because you’re not going to like what you see.”

Although Trump had previously ordered a complete declassification of Crossfire Hurricane at the end of his first term, those documents were never disclosed. A CNN report from 2023 indicated that a binder containing highly classified information went missing.

Emily Johnson for TROIB News

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