Trump declassifies Russia-related Crossfire Hurricane documents
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The release is expected to include redactions to protect highly sensitive information.
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President Donald Trump delivers remarks as Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, right, and House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., stand beside him in the Roosevelt Room at the White House in Washington, Monday, March 24, 2025. (Pool via AP)
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday authorized the release of materials related to the FBI’s 2016 investigation into his campaign and alleged Russian ties. The move marks another instance of Trump leveraging his office to challenge past investigations against him.
With this executive action, Trump finalizes an effort he initiated during his first term when he ordered the declassification of the FBI’s Russia probe, known as Crossfire Hurricane. In January 2021, on his last full day in office, he officially declassified the documents. However, they were never made public, and an unredacted copy of the binder mysteriously vanished, as first reported by CNN in 2023.
The binder contains extensive intelligence related to the Russia investigation, including raw intelligence gathered by the US and NATO allies that contributed to assessments about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s alleged attempts to aid Trump’s 2016 campaign. The release is expected to include redactions to protect highly sensitive information.
It also contains classified details about the FBI’s controversial surveillance of a Trump campaign advisor in 2017, interview notes with dossier author Christopher Steele, and internal communications from the FBI and the Department of Justice.
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Trump’s directive maintains that any materials the FBI marked for redaction in 2021 should remain classified, along with “materials that must be protected from disclosure pursuant to orders of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi confirmed the process had already begun, calling the investigation “an example of weaponized government against President Trump at its worst that must never be allowed to happen again.”
The order is part of Trump’s broader effort to target those who investigated him. On Tuesday, he also signed an executive order suspending security clearances and federal building access for lawyers at Jenner & Block, a law firm that previously employed former prosecutor Andrew Weissmann. Weissmann played a key role in the prosecution of Trump’s 2016 campaign chairman Paul Manafort during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.
Trump’s allies have long advocated for the release of the Crossfire Hurricane documents, including FBI Director Kash Patel.
“Put out the documents. Put out the evidence. We only have gotten halfway down the Russiagate hole,” Patel said on Fox News in November before being appointed to lead the FBI. “The people need to know that their FBI is restored by knowing full well what they did to unlawfully surveil them.”
Some redacted Crossfire Hurricane documents were released in 2023 following a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit. However, conservative journalist John Solomon, whom Trump appointed as his representative to the National Archives, argued the disclosures were inadequate. Solomon had previously sued the Biden administration in an attempt to obtain the full binder.
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