The Justice Department is investigating whether former senior FBI officials mishandled classified documents that were found in a “burn bag” at the bureau’s headquarters, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to CBS News.
The documents in question are related to the FBI’s probe into whether Russia influenced the 2016 election in President Trump’s favor. That investigation has drawn Mr. Trump’s ire for years — he’s called the allegations that Russia sought to help him win a “hoax” and a “witch hunt,” and in recent weeks, some top administration officials have claimed Obama-era intelligence leaders who looked into Russian meddling may have broken the law.
Nobody has been criminally charged in the probe.
The New York Times was first to report on the Justice Department’s burn bag investigation.
CBS News has reached out to the Justice Department for comment.
The “burn bags” first entered the public discourse last month, when Fox News reported that FBI Director Kash Patel discovered thousands of Russia-related documents in bags that are typically used to hold sensitive materials that are about to be destroyed. Days later, Patel wrote on X: “We just uncovered burn bags/room filled with hidden Russia Gate files.”
The FBI’s investigation into Russian election interference — dubbed “Crossfire Hurricane” — was opened during the 2016 campaign and continued into Mr. Trump’s first term. A probe run by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller later found that the Russian government interfered in the 2016 election with a goal of benefitting the Trump campaign, though Mr. Trump and top campaign officials were not accused of any illegal coordination with Russia.
A 2017 report by the U.S. intelligence community also assessed that Moscow sought to influence the election and “developed a clear preference” for Mr. Trump.
Those findings have long been challenged by top Trump allies and by the president himself. Last month, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified documents that she claimed called into question the 2017 intelligence community report.
Gabbard accused Obama-era officials of “treasonous conspiracy” and a “years-long coup” to undermine Mr. Trump, and said she would refer the matter to the Justice Department for possible criminal investigation. Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesperson for former President Barack Obama, called the allegations “bizarre” and “ridiculous.”
Patel is another vociferous critic of how the agency he now leads handled the Russia investigation. In 2023, he penned a book titled “Government Gangsters,” which calls the FBI “thoroughly compromised” and rails against a sweeping “Deep State” that he alleges victimized Mr. Trump with a “witch hunt” investigation.
Critics of the FBI’s Russia investigation have long accused the bureau of acting with political animus against Mr. Trump or mishandling elements of the probe. An internal Justice Department watchdog found in 2019 that the FBI did not show “political bias” and that the FBI was justified in opening the probe, but criticized some of the FBI’s practices, including the warrants that were used to surveil ex-Trump aide Carter Page. Years later, Trump-era special counsel John Durham called the investigation “seriously flawed.”
