Intelligence gathered from credible foreign sources reportedly predicted with “alarming specificity” that the FBI would take steps to fuel the Trump-Russia collusion narrative—before the bureau even launched its Crossfire Hurricane investigation, sources familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe is preparing to declassify a trove of documents—including a classified annex—that were foundational to Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Trump-Russia probe.
A source with direct knowledge of the annex said that although the intelligence was not fully understood at the time, in hindsight it clearly foresaw the FBI’s actions. “This wasn’t vague or generic,” the source said. “It essentially outlined what the FBI ended up doing, before they did it.”
The annex reportedly adds weight to allegations that elements within the U.S. government coordinated to boost Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign by tying Donald Trump to Russian interference claims.
Just days after the intelligence was gathered, the FBI opened its now-infamous Crossfire Hurricane investigation on July 31, 2016. “It’s difficult to imagine how Brennan, Clapper, and Comey explain this away,” the source said.
Back in 2020, Fox News reported that then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Barack Obama and top officials—including then-Vice President Joe Biden, Attorney General Loretta Lynch, FBI Director James Comey, and DNI James Clapper—on intelligence suggesting that Hillary Clinton’s campaign was working to link Trump to Russian hackers, in an effort to distract from her own email scandal.
Brennan’s handwritten notes from the meeting, later declassified by Ratcliffe, described a proposal by a Clinton foreign policy adviser to create a “scandal” around Trump and Russia. That information was formally passed to the FBI via a Counterintelligence Operational Lead (CIOL), with the subject line: “Crossfire Hurricane.”
The memo cited an exchange involving Clinton’s alleged approval of a plan to smear Trump, and that this tactic involved exploiting Russian hacking claims to deflect from Clinton’s use of a private email server.
Despite the apparent political origins of the claims, the FBI proceeded to open a counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign just days later.
Now, Ratcliffe—working closely with FBI Director Kash Patel, DNI Tulsi Gabbard, Attorney General Pam Bondi, NSA Acting Director William Hartman, and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley—plans to make the classified annex public. The CIA and NSA have signed off on declassifying their supporting intelligence.
Ratcliffe previously provided Durham with over 1,000 documents while serving as Director of National Intelligence in 2020. At the time, he pushed for public disclosure, but Durham held off to avoid compromising his still-ongoing investigation.
Durham’s final report later found that the FBI had “failed to uphold” its legal obligations and ignored clear warning signs that it may have been manipulated by political actors.
“The evidence suggests that the Clinton plan should have been a red flag,” Durham wrote, “yet the FBI rushed forward with Crossfire Hurricane and overlooked its significance.”
Durham also concluded that, had the FBI treated the case as an “assessment” rather than a full-blown investigation, and considered the Clinton-related intelligence more seriously, the agency might have avoided its costly missteps.
On Fox News’ Sunday Morning Futures, Ratcliffe said the annex will shed further light on what he described as an FBI strategy to amplify false narratives: “What the intelligence shows is that this wasn’t just Hillary Clinton’s plan. The FBI helped fuel it. They poured gasoline on the fire of the fake Steele dossier while burying the truth.”
In recent weeks, declassified records have also revealed that Obama-era officials may have “manufactured” intelligence to support the Trump-Russia narrative. FBI Director Patel has since launched criminal investigations into Brennan and Comey, while DNI Gabbard has issued criminal referrals targeting additional Obama-era figures.
