FBI Trump–Russia investigation, declassified. REDACTED 673-page binder released May 2025. Four FISA warrants invalidated. Steele dossier origins. Durham 306 pages and Mueller 448. 48 principals. $1,024,407.97 in research funding. The Oxford Comma probe.
Mueller, Horowitz, Durham, and the 2025–26 declassification wave — scope, authority, and what each actually found.
| Investigation | Lead / period | Scope and authority | Key finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mueller Special Counsel | Robert Mueller May 2017 – Mar 2019 | Russian interference and obstruction. 19 lawyers, 40 FBI agents, 2,800 subpoenas, 500 witnesses. | No conspiracy charged 34 indictments. Did not exonerate on obstruction. |
| Horowitz IG Review | Michael Horowitz Mar 2018 – Dec 2019 | Review of four FISA applications on Carter Page, confidential sources, and Woods procedures. | 17 errors / omissions Authorized purpose, but significant inaccuracies. |
| Durham Special Counsel | John Durham May 2019 – May 2023 | Origins of Crossfire Hurricane. Was the full investigation lawfully predicated? | 1 conviction FBI should not have opened a full investigation. |
| 2025–2026 declass Executive + FBI Vault | Kash Patel / White House Mar 2025 – Aug 2026 | Full Crossfire Hurricane file, 673-page binder, prohibited-access memos, Oxford Comma. | Full disclosure Internal doubts on Steele, and withheld Page statements. |
The March directive, the binder that sat blocked since 2020, and the prohibited-access memos that came out with it.
Directs the Attorney General and FBI Director to declassify Crossfire Hurricane records without redacting FBI personnel who prepared the FISA applications, except sources and methods under 25X1. Cites the Horowitz 17 errors as a public-interest override.
Binder compiled by House Intelligence in 2020 and previously blocked. Includes the January 2017 Steele source-validation report in which Danchenko disavowed the dossier, Page statements left out of the FISA, and McCabe’s “no big there there” note.
Full counterintelligence case, not a preliminary inquiry. The only predicate was the Papadopoulos–Downer tip. Durham later found no collusion evidence at opening.
Initial Carter Page warrant. The Steele dossier was used for probable cause. Seven errors and omissions: Page’s CIA operational-contact record was left out, recorded denials were withheld, and Woods procedures were not followed. The same defects were copied into every renewal.
First renewal. Repeated the original seven inaccuracies. The FBI still had no corroborated dossier reporting, and it did not tell the FISC about Page’s prior relationship with the CIA.
Steele’s primary sub-source told the FBI the reporting was hearsay and bar talk. He denied the Sechin meeting and the WikiLeaks claim. The FBI renewed the Page warrant anyway.
Second renewal. By then agents had Danchenko’s contradictions in the file. Those statements were omitted from the application, along with Papadopoulos’s recorded denials and the evidence that Page had no role in the GOP platform change.
A separate file was opened to audit the Strzok–Page “insurance policy” texts and the original predication. It closed in April 2019 and was declassified on August 5, 2026.
Crossfire Hurricane cases moved under the Special Counsel. Oxford Comma kept running beside it as an administrative review.
The CIA had confirmed in writing that Carter Page was an operational contact from 2008–2013 and had reported the Russian contacts himself. FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith changed that email so it read that Page was “not a source.” Horowitz Error 09. The altered line was inserted into the final FISA renewal. He pleaded guilty on August 19, 2020, under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 — the only conviction from the Horowitz referrals — and received 12 months’ probation on January 29, 2021.
Third and final renewal. It relied on the altered “not a source” email and still omitted Danchenko’s disavowals, Ohr’s warning that Steele was desperate Trump not be elected, and the FBI’s own validation report. Page was never charged.
The inspector general documented 17 significant inaccuracies and omissions across the four Page warrants, including the Clinesmith alteration, and referred him for prosecution.
Concluded the FBI lacked a sufficient factual predicate for a full investigation and should have opened a preliminary inquiry instead.
Orders release of the prohibited-access material that had kept the FISA file and the Steele validation report out of oversight hands.
The binder shows the March 2016 recordings in which Page denied any Russia coordination. Those statements were in the case file and were withheld from the FISA court on all four warrants.
The May 2017 predication audit of the insurance-policy texts is released. It closed in April 2019 as an administrative review.
The two-page Steele summary that FBI leadership attached to the January 2017 assessment. The raw source file is still an open demand.
7 critical errors in the initial October 2016 Carter Page warrant (repeated in all renewals) + 10 additional errors across the 2017 renewal applications.
Failed to disclose August 2016 CIA liaison records showing Page was an approved operational contact from 2008–2013 who had reported the same Russian intelligence contacts the FBI used against him.
Asserted, without his handling agent’s approval, that Steele’s prior reporting had been corroborated and used in criminal proceedings, violating Woods Procedures.
Omitted Steele’s own warning that key sub-source Person 1 was a boaster and egoist who might embellish, and omitted that the FBI had opened a counterintelligence probe on Person 1 days earlier.
Claimed Steele did not directly brief the reporter behind a September 23, 2016 Yahoo! News article, so the article could be used as corroboration, despite Woods-file records that Steele also shared his research with the State Department.
Withheld consensually monitored recordings from September 2016 in which George Papadopoulos told an FBI informant that no one on the Trump campaign was collaborating with Russia or WikiLeaks.
Withheld August 2016 recordings in which Page told an FBI informant he had “literally never met” or “said one word to” Paul Manafort — contradicting Dossier Report 95’s claim that Page was Manafort’s intermediary.
Used selective quotes from an October 2016 informant recording against Page while omitting his explicit denials, in the same conversation, of ever meeting Igor Sechin or Igor Divyekin, or of knowing who Divyekin was.
Omitted January 2017 interview statements from Steele’s primary sub-source, Igor Danchenko, that contradicted the dossier: no discussion with Person 1 about WikiLeaks, “nothing bad” in Kremlin–Trump communications, and no report that Page met Sechin.
After the CIA confirmed in writing in June 2017 that Page had been a source, FBI attorney Kevin Clinesmith altered the email so it read that Page was “not a source,” for the final FISA renewal.
Withheld statements from Steele’s former professional contacts that he showed a lack of self-awareness and poor judgment, and pursued people with political risk but no intelligence value.
Failed to tell the court that DOJ official Bruce Ohr warned the FBI that Steele’s work was going to the Clinton campaign, that Fusion GPS was paying Steele to brief the media, and that Steele was “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected.”
Did not update the generic source footnote even after confirming, via Bruce Ohr and others, that Fusion GPS was hired by someone associated with the Democratic Party and the DNC.
Kept claiming Steele had not briefed the Yahoo! News reporter even after a 2017 UK court filing in which Steele admitted briefing the news media in late summer and early fall 2016.
Omitted a spring 2017 internal validation report finding Steele’s past criminal-program contributions were only minimally corroborated, while still telling the FISC his past reporting was corroborated and used in criminal proceedings.
Withheld late October 2016 statements to an FBI informant in which Papadopoulos denied any Trump campaign involvement in the DNC email hack.
Left out that Maltese professor Joseph Mifsud, interviewed by the FBI in February 2017, denied supplying Papadopoulos with the claim that Russia had “dirt” on Hillary Clinton.
Withheld witness interviews proving Carter Page played no role in changing the 2016 GOP platform on Ukraine and Russia, contradicting a core claim from Dossier Report 95 used in all four FISA warrants.
Horowitz Error 09. Pleaded guilty under 18 U.S.C. § 1001 for altering a June 2017 CIA email so it said Carter Page was “not a source.” That line supported the final FISA renewal. Probation and a DC Bar suspension. Only guilty plea from the Horowitz referrals.
Pleaded guilty to false statements about Mifsud contacts. 14 days, later pardoned.
Convicted 8 counts, pleaded conspiracy. 7.5 years. Predated campaign but uncovered by Mueller.
Pleaded guilty re Kislyak calls. DOJ moved to dismiss 2020, pardoned Dec 2020.
Durham charged for allegedly lying about client delivering Alfa-Bank data. Jury acquitted in 14 min 2022.
Primary sub-source for Steele. Durham charged 5 false statements. Acquitted all 2022.
Subject of 4 FISA warrants later deemed invalid. Never charged. DOJ settled civil suit.
Bio. FBI special agent assigned to Crossfire Razor and later the lead investigator on the Oxford Comma predication audit.
Involvement. Told Durham’s investigators the collusion theory was “a bad game of Clue” and asked to be taken off the probe.
Bio. New York counterintelligence agent. Horowitz identifies him as Case Agent 1 on the Carter Page FISA.
Involvement. Primary handler behind several omissions in the Page FISA applications, and a main voice pushing the Bureau to seek the warrant.
Bio. Supervisory special agent, SSA 1 in the inspector general’s report.
Involvement. Sat in the August 17, 2016 defensive briefing of Trump, Flynn, and Christie and wrote it up for Crossfire Hurricane. Co-interviewed Flynn on January 24, 2017. Signed Woods paperwork on the Page FISAs.
Bio. Assistant director of the FBI Counterintelligence Division during Crossfire Hurricane.
Involvement. Signed the opening of Crossfire Hurricane in July 2016 and of Oxford Comma in May 2017. Traveled to London in the first phase of the case.
Bio. Chief of the FBI’s cyber and counterintelligence section at headquarters, later special agent in charge in New York.
Involvement. Received the July 2016 Papadopoulos cable at headquarters. Sentenced in 2023–2024 for working illegally for Oleg Deripaska and concealing $225,000 from a foreign intelligence source.
Bio. Supervisory intelligence analyst on the Crossfire Hurricane analytical team.
Involvement. Sat in the January 2017 Danchenko interviews. Testified in Durham’s trials that the FBI offered Steele $1 million to corroborate the dossier, which Steele could not do. Later named in Grassley’s Prohibited Access oversight.
Bio. Chicago counterintelligence agent involved in the Danchenko prosecution.
Involvement. Admitted under oath at the October 2022 Danchenko trial that he withheld exculpatory FISA evidence. The FBI later suspended him.
Bio. Special agent named in 2025–2026 Grassley disclosures on Prohibited Access files.
Involvement. Received the Steele dossier early and emailed seven times in four weeks asking to join Crossfire Hurricane. Wiped a Mueller-assigned laptop outside protocol. Case agent on Crimson River, later renamed Red Maasari.
Bio. Former assistant special agent in charge at the Washington Field Office.
Involvement. Senate Judiciary records from 2025–2026 tie him to helping Giardina open anti-Trump sub-cases, sidelining confidential sources, and starting Arctic Frost.
Bio. Deputy assistant secretary of state who met Christopher Steele ten days before the first Page warrant.
Involvement. Her October 11, 2016 notes record Steele’s wish to get the information out before November 8, and his false claim of a Russian consulate in Miami. Those notes were not in the FISA applications.
Bio. Cybersecurity executive Durham called Tech Executive-1.
Involvement. Used privileged access to DNS traffic at Trump Tower, Trump’s apartment building, and the Executive Office of the President to assemble the Alfa Bank white papers Sussmann took to James Baker. Analysts found the data not technically plausible.
Bio. Belarusian-American businessman. Durham’s filings call him Persona-1.
Involvement. Igor Danchenko named him as the anonymous source for the Steele dossier’s Trump Tower conspiracy claims. That attribution did not hold up.
Bio. Longtime Democratic public-relations executive with business in Moscow. Durham called him PR Executive-1.
Involvement. He supplied Igor Danchenko with gossip that ended up in the Steele dossier.
Bio. Kremlin-aligned oligarch. The FBI and Bruce Ohr tried for years to cultivate him as a source. He also hired Christopher Steele on legal matters.
Involvement. Later paid former Crossfire supervisor Charles McGonigal illegally. McGonigal was sentenced for that work and for hiding $225,000.
Bio. Principal deputy general counsel in the FBI Office of General Counsel.
Involvement. Signed off on the Carter Page FISA packages before they went to the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
Bio. Attorney in the FBI Office of General Counsel on the Crossfire Hurricane legal team.
Involvement. Handled FISA review logistics with Kevin Clinesmith.
Bio. State Department official who moved material between Steele and political contacts in the fall of 2016.
Involvement. Took the Shearer–Blumenthal memo, gave it to Christopher Steele, and was the channel between that memo, Steele, and senior State Department officials.
Bio. FBI legal attaché in Rome. He was the Bureau’s first official recipient of Steele’s reporting.
Involvement. Met Christopher Steele in London on July 5, 2016, took the first dossier memo, and routed it to the team that became Crossfire Hurricane.
The person-linked files. The other added files are in the investigations list.
Perkins Coie invoiced Fusion GPS $1,024,407.97. The figure below is the FEC-reported pass-through, not a new estimate.
| Source | Conduit | Recipient | Amount | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| DNC | Perkins Coie (Marc Elias) | Fusion GPS | $168,000.00 | Opposition research — initial engagement |
| Hillary for America | Perkins Coie | Fusion GPS | $168,000.00 | Opposition research — shared cost |
| Perkins Coie — total invoiced | Law firm | Fusion GPS | $1,024,407.97 | Full research and legal pass-through (FEC filings) |
| Fusion GPS | Subcontract | Christopher Steele / Orbis | $168,000.00 | Dossier compilation — 17 reports |
| Fusion GPS | Researcher | Nellie Ohr (via Bruce Ohr) | $55,000 est. | Open-source research on Manafort and Page |
| FBI | Crossfire Hurricane team | Steele (offered) | $15,000 (not paid) | Offered for continued intel. Terminated Nov 2016 after media contact. |
| FBI | Confidential source | Stefan Halper | $1,059,000+ total | Source payments 2016–2017, including Page and Papadopoulos recordings |
The ten files below were still outside the principal archive. The twelve person-linked files sit with the new principals. The full matrix follows.
Declassify, subpoena, audit, or put it on the record. Each row opens the file it belongs to.
Declassify the raw investigative files, analytical dissents, and inter-agency emails on putting the Steele dossier summary into the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment as Annex A.
Subpoena forensic backups and cloud sync logs from Apple and Samsung for the 27 wiped prosecution phones, to recover texts among Special Counsel personnel from May 2017 to September 2018.
Forensic audit of the enterprise collection system and the software upgrade blamed for a five-month gap in texts across thousands of FBI phones during the 2016 transition.
Release the case file, internal email chains, and unredacted whistleblower disclosures on Walter Giardina’s laptop wipe and the timing of the 2024 pre-election leaks.
Compulsory subpoenas for complete ledgers, contractor logs, and sub-source payouts from Perkins Coie, Fusion GPS, and Orbis Business Intelligence.
A joint media and congressional motion under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 6(e) to unseal grand jury testimony that preceded the Durham indictments.
Declassify the full March 2020 management advisory that audited 29 FISA applications in eight field offices, beyond the Carter Page warrants.
Release the original intelligence memos, Brennan’s handwritten notes from the Obama briefing, and the September 7, 2016 referral sent to James Comey and Peter Strzok.
Take down and declassify the unauthorized Round River markings used to block oversight and suppress confidential-source reporting.
Find and declassify the earliest digital drafts and handwritten notes of the January 24, 2017 West Wing interview, before Peter Strzok and Lisa Page edited the text.
Release the operational file, tasking orders, and ledgers for every payment to source Stefan Halper, including the Page, Papadopoulos, and Clovis recordings.
Compel the 197 restricted subpoena logs, carrier sweeps, and surveillance orders for the successor vault systems from 2022 through 2026.
Public hearings with the field agents who handled the 2016 Clinton Foundation and campaign-contribution tips, set against how headquarters handled Crossfire Hurricane.
Release the clean 29-page classified appendix recovered from bureau burn bags, including the foreign-intelligence inputs that preceded the July 31, 2016 opening memo.
An independent review of how sources such as Christopher Steele and Igor Danchenko skipped ordinary reliability checks under the Attorney General’s CHS guidelines.
Release every FD-302 from meetings between Bruce Ohr, Christopher Steele, Glenn Simpson, and FBI leadership.
Subpoena emails, encrypted chats, and white papers between Rodney Joffe, Michael Sussmann, and FBI cyber analysts on the Alfa Bank DNS claims.
Declassify the internal security reviews of how Charles McGonigal kept a hand in Russia-related cases while cultivating Oleg Deripaska.
Publish an independent audit of whether the post-Horowitz Woods procedures actually stop agents from omitting exculpatory evidence on FISA renewals.
A bipartisan panel with its own subpoena power over executive-branch declassification, so counterintelligence files are not withheld by arbitrary redaction.
What was alleged, which statute was discussed, and where each matter actually landed.
| Person | Alleged conduct | Potential statute | Status | Likelihood |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kevin Clinesmith | Horowitz Error 09: altered a CIA email so it said Page was not a source | 18 USC 1001 | Pleaded, sentenced | Completed |
| Andrew McCabe | Lack of candor about media leaks | 18 USC 1001 | DOJ declined 2020 | Declined |
| James Comey | Mishandling memos; leak to a friend | 18 USC 793? | IG referred, no charge | Very low |
| Strzok / Page | Bias and improper political communications | Hatch Act / admin | Fired or resigned; lawsuits settled | Civil only |
| Steele / Simpson / Ohr | Unregistered foreign lobbying / false statements | FARA / 1001 | Not charged | Low / SOL expired |
| Sussmann / Danchenko | False statements to the FBI | 18 USC 1001 | Both acquitted | Exhausted |
| Brennan / Clapper | Alleged misleading of Congress on dossier use | 18 USC 1001 | No referral | Speculative |
Six primary documents and hearings. Filter by declassification, documents, or testimony. Links leave this briefing.
"Total weaponization" - All FBI files relating to Crossfire Hurricane ordered declassified. 700 pages Obama-era spy files.
View documentUpdated 2 mins agoExposes vault marked Prohibited Access that blocked oversight. Steele vetting failures and FISA draft edits withheld since 2020.
View documentUpdated 15 mins agoFBI Director Kash Patel testifies, opens full vault review and 90-day audit of 2016-17 files. Declassifies Strzok-Page thread index.
View documentUpdated 1 hour agoSpecial Counsel John Durham testifies 2:52:48. Concludes FBI lacked sufficient predicate and relied on uncorroborated intel.
View documentUpdated 3 hours agoProbe opened May 2017 to investigate insurance policy texts, closed Apr 2019. No separate predicate beyond Midyear carryover.
View documentUpdated 5 hours agoHouse Transparency Task Force reveals markers used to hide CH files. Patel audit removes markings enabling binder release.
View documentUpdated 1 day ago| Repository | Document | Date | Access |
|---|---|---|---|
| FBI Vault | Crossfire Hurricane — 673-page binder | May 2025 | vault.fbi.gov/crossfire-hurricane |
| DOJ Inspector General | Horowitz: Review of Four FISA Applications | Dec 9 2019 | justice.gov — 120919 examination |
| DOJ Special Counsel | Durham report — origins of the investigation | May 15 2023 | justice.gov — durhamreport.pdf |
| DOJ Special Counsel | Mueller report (redacted) | Apr 18 2019 | justice.gov — report.pdf |
| White House | Memo directing declassification of FBI Crossfire Hurricane files | Mar 25 2025 | whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions |
| Senate Judiciary | Grassley–Graham criminal referral — Steele | Jan 4 2018 | judiciary.senate.gov |
| FISC | FISA court orders on the Carter Page warrants | Jan 2020 | fisc.uscourts.gov |