Investigations led by FBI Director Kash Patel are examining four secretive counterintelligence probes that monitored Donald Trump and numerous allies over nearly a decade.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
President Donald Trump and hundreds of people connected to him were subjected to a series of FBI counterintelligence investigations spanning nearly a decade, according to interviews and documents first reported by Just the News.
FBI Director Kash Patel has been overseeing a review of four operations—Crossfire Hurricane, Round River, Plasmic Echo, and Arctic Frost—that collectively ran from the summer of 2016 through January 2025. Officials familiar with the inquiry say the investigations involved sweeping surveillance tactics and intelligence-gathering methods that reached hundreds of Americans tied to Trump’s political orbit.
According to officials who reviewed the records, many of the investigative files were concealed within the FBI’s systems and marked as “prohibited access,” restricting their visibility even to most bureau agents. The designation allowed senior leadership to tightly control access to the materials.
Patel’s internal review has been supported by whistleblowers within the FBI, several senior bureau executives assisting the director, and members of Congress including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa.
Individuals familiar with the records told investigators that the files show how expanded counterterrorism and counterintelligence authorities granted after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks were ultimately used against U.S. citizens during politically sensitive investigations involving Trump and his supporters.
One whistleblower told the FBI this month that surveillance and monitoring of individuals connected to Trump continued until the president’s inauguration in January 2025.
According to interviews with people who reviewed the files, the investigations reached across large segments of Trump’s political network. Those targeted included members of Congress and their staff, Trump’s future White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, journalists, political advisers, defense attorneys, and even Patel himself.
Investigative tools reportedly included warrants, wiretaps, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act monitoring, analysis of phone records, FBI assessments, and grand jury subpoenas.
Many of those examined were categorized by the bureau as “special circumstances targets,” a classification typically applied to individuals with constitutionally protected privileges such as lawmakers, journalists, lawyers, or political figures.
A political consultant who later became a documentary filmmaker investigating Hunter Biden’s foreign business activities was also notified that he had been targeted in a criminal investigation that was only recently closed. Congressional correspondence reviewed by investigators indicates that Michael Caputo’s emails and communications were seized in 2023 through what was described as a classified subpoena issued roughly two weeks after he joined Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign.
According to those letters, the account accessed by investigators contained internal communications discussing the Trump campaign’s strategies and deliberations.
While that specific investigation has since been shut down, questions remain about the scope of the bureau’s investigative activities. A recent audit report provided to Congress revealed that at least 1,200 individuals who fell into the bureau’s “special circumstances” categories were investigated under FBI assessments between 2018 and 2024 during the tenure of former Director Christopher Wray.
Officials reviewing the records said the investigations could expose potential civil rights violations by federal authorities.
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“There is growing evidence that may support a case that the FBI engaged between 2016 and 2025 in a conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Trump and his supporters under the color of government power,” a senior official with direct knowledge of the review told Just the News.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said federal prosecutors are evaluating whether criminal charges could be warranted if evidence shows that officials knowingly used investigative authorities to violate civil liberties.
“The Department of Justice is at the heart of considering these issues right now, so I can’t really talk about the specifics, but in general terms, yes, the Civil Rights Division and the DOJ generally does have the tool of a criminal conspiracy statute for conspiracy against rights,” Dhillon said in remarks reported by Just the News. “And this dates back to the start of the Ku Klux Klan.”
“I would say all of those things are on the table for lawyers and DOJ officials and others who conspired with them at the state level, state prosecutors, state police and so forth, who conspired to violate civil rights, and it could also include executive branch officials from the first administration who knowingly conspired and orchestrated a violation of federal civil rights,” she added.
Federal prosecutors in Miami are already examining whether intelligence and law enforcement powers were improperly used against Trump and his associates. Prosecutors led by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones are investigating the weaponization of intelligence and law enforcement while building a potential conspiracy case covering the 2016, 2020, and 2024 election cycles.
Two of the operations examined in Patel’s review—Crossfire Hurricane and Arctic Frost—have already received public scrutiny. The Crossfire Hurricane probe investigated allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign coordinated with Russia, claims that were later widely disputed. Evidence connected to that probe includes intelligence reports showing that officials misled Congress about the Steele dossier’s role in a 2017 intelligence assessment that examined Russian election interference. The dossier itself was also cited in the intelligence community’s claims about Russian intentions during the 2016 election.
The Arctic Frost investigation focused on Trump’s effort to present alternate electors ahead of the certification of the 2020 election results. Senate Judiciary Committee records indicate that the probe targeted nearly 400 conservative groups and individuals.
The two other investigations—Round River and Plasmic Echo—remain largely classified but are currently undergoing declassification review so Congress can be briefed on their contents.
Evidence from the Plasmic Echo investigation relates to the classified documents case involving Trump’s residence at Mar-a-Lago. According to Patel, internal communications show that some FBI agents questioned whether the evidence met the legal threshold required to obtain a search warrant before the raid in August 2022.
“[We] continue to pass versions back and forth after our pause and concern about [probable cause] for any of the locations outlined…” one agent wrote to colleagues during discussions about the warrant request. “What is the guidance for continuing to work on this document without any new information?”
Records also show that the Biden White House was directly linked to facilitating the Justice Department’s classified documents investigation despite earlier denials. Former Attorney General Merrick Garland publicly stated that he personally approved the decision to seek the search warrant that led to the FBI’s search of Trump’s residence.
Investigators also uncovered evidence suggesting that the bureau obtained phone records belonging to Patel and Susie Wiles after Trump announced his 2024 presidential campaign. According to sources familiar with the review, investigators wiretapped a conversation involving Wiles based on a claim that her attorney had granted consent.
Wiles’ lawyer has denied providing such authorization.
“If I ever pulled a stunt like that, I wouldn’t – and shouldn’t – have a license to practice law,” the attorney told Axios. “I’m as shocked as Susie.”
Officials say the Round River investigation may present some of the most serious questions about investigative standards, although much of its documentation remains classified. The probe began in the FBI’s Pittsburgh field office and initially focused on Trump attorney and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani after he began investigating the foreign business activities of Hunter Biden and Joe Biden in Ukraine.
The inquiry later expanded to include other public figures who raised questions about the Biden family’s dealings in Ukraine.
According to early whistleblower testimony provided to Congress, investigators may have targeted journalists, filmmakers, lawyers, and lawmakers who publicly discussed the allegations. Congressional officials have expressed concern that some individuals may have been investigated solely because their statements were considered potential “Russian disinformation.”
Sen. Grassley has been closely involved in assisting the FBI’s review by relaying information from whistleblowers who sought protection from Congress during the Biden administration. In one letter sent in 2022, Grassley raised concerns about how the bureau handled intelligence related to Hunter Biden.
“The information provided to my office involves concerns about the FBI’s receipt and use of derogatory information relating to Hunter Biden, and the FBI’s false portrayal of acquired evidence as disinformation,” Grassley wrote. “The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their credibility and necessitate this letter.”
He added that, based on the information provided to his office, “verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation.”
Investigators say many of the records connected to the operations were hidden in the FBI’s Sentinel case management system as restricted “prohibited access files,” allowing only select officials to view them. Some of the records were stored in secure intelligence facilities known as sensitive compartmented information facilities.
Patel has assigned a small team of agents to locate the hidden records as part of the broader review into potential abuses within the bureau.
The inquiry has been complicated by the recent departure of FBI Congressional Affairs Office Chief Marshall Yates, who had worked extensively with lawmakers to provide documents to Congress. Yates had been widely regarded on Capitol Hill for improving transparency after years of disputes over access to FBI records.
Deputy Director Andrew Bailey has since taken a lead role coordinating the bureau’s approach to congressional requests. Some lawmakers initially raised concerns that Bailey intended to slow document production, but those concerns were addressed after he circulated a memo stating that providing evidence to Congress and Justice Department investigators remained “imperative,” according to officials who received the communication.
Officials involved in the ongoing review say decisions about whether criminal charges may be filed against former FBI or Justice Department personnel could be made within the coming weeks as investigators continue evaluating the evidence uncovered in the files.
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