Judicial Watch Sues for FBI’s 2021 ‘Rosetta Stone’ Report on Crossfire Hurricane

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Justice seeking a 2021 investigative report by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) concerning Operation Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI’s investigation into alleged links between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (1:26-cv-03603)).

The suit was filed after the FBI failed to respond to an August 7, 2026, FOIA request for the following records:

A copy of the investigative report produced by the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility in 2021 relating to Operation Crossfire Hurricane, reportedly consisting of approximately 400 pages, plus approximately 7,000 pages of attachments, as more fully described at https://r.zry.net/2026/08/is-fbi-hiding-the-400-page-rosetta-stone-that-could-seal-john-brennans-fate/

In August 2026, investigative journalist Paul Sperry reported that sources told him the FBI was withholding from declassification a 2021 Office of Professional Responsibility report examining Crossfire Hurricane. According to Sperry, the report contains approximately 400 pages and roughly 7,000 pages of supporting documents. It was described as a “Rosetta Stone” that could shed further light on the roles of then-CIA Director John Brennan and Five Eyes intelligence partners in the operation.

In July 2016, during the presidential election campaign between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division opened the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. In August 2016, then-CIA Director John Brennan briefed President Obama and other senior officials on intelligence reportedly showing a Hillary Clinton campaign plan to link Trump to Russia.

In December 2019, the Justice Department inspector general issued a report documenting significant errors and omissions in applications to surveil former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

In May 2023, Special Counsel John Durham released his final report, concluding that the FBI opened a full investigation based on “raw, unanalyzed and uncorroborated intelligence” and displayed “confirmation bias” in pursuing the investigation. The report noted problems with the FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) surveillance practices, reporting that unverified information from the Steele dossier was used to help justify FISA applications targeting Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The report also stated that an FBI lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, pleaded guilty to altering an email used in a FISA application.

In July 2025, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) made public the formerly classified Appendix (“Durham annex”) to Durham’s 2023 Special Counsel report, which “contains previously classified information exposing a reported Clinton campaign plan to falsely tie President Donald Trump to Russia.”

“Judicial Watch is suing for the complete report and attachments so the public can examine the FBI’s internal review of Crossfire Hurricane. The American people deserve to know what the FBI’s investigators uncovered,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Judicial Watch will fight to shed critical light on the FBI’s actions and for accountability for one of the most consequential investigations in our nation’s history.”

Judicial Watch has been instrumental in uncovering much of what the public knows about Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate, which involved a long list of Democratic political figures, lawyers, and staffers who shaped the narrative around the Trump-Russia hoax.

In January 2026, Judicial Watch filed a FOIA lawsuit for fully unredacted records and previously withheld or missing portions of former Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation into the origins of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate investigation (Judicial Watch Inc. v. U.S. Department of Justice (No. 1:26-cv-00138)).

In November 2025, Judicial Watch provided an in-depth recap of the Crossfire Hurricane/Russiagate debacle.

In May 2025, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department for all records regarding the FBI, under then-Director James Comey, initiating an investigation of then-2016 presidential candidate Donald Trump.

In October 2020, Judicial Watch uncovered heavily redacted email communications among top-level State Department officials and a U.S. ambassador expressing skepticism about reports by Christopher Steele’s London-based private intelligence firm Orbis Business Intelligence. (Steele was the author of the Clinton-funded, anti-Trump dossier.) The emails show one assistant secretary of state saying some of Steele’s reports sound “extreme” and others “do not ring true,” while the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine called some of the Steele reports “flaky.”

In May 2020, Judicial Watch forced the declassification and release of the “electronic communication” used to launch Crossfire Hurricane, written by former FBI official Peter Strzok.

In April 2020, Judicial Watch obtained emails between former FBI official Peter Strzok and former FBI attorney Lisa Page, including an email dated January 10, 2017, in which Strzok said that the version of the Steele dossier published by BuzzFeed was “identical” to the version given to the FBI by McCain and had “differences” from the dossier provided to the FBI by Fusion GPS co-founder Glenn Simpson and Mother Jones reporter David Corn. January 10, 2017, is the same day BuzzFeed published the anti-Trump dossier by former British spy Christopher Steele. The emails also show Strzok and other FBI agents mocking President Trump a few weeks before he was inaugurated. In addition, the emails revealed that Strzok communicated with then-Deputy Director Andrew McCabe about the “leak investigation” tied to the Clinton Foundation (the very leak in which McCabe was later implicated).

In September 2019, Judicial Watch released State Department records revealing that Steele had an extensive and close working relationship dating back to May of 2014 with high-ranking Obama State Department officials including Jonathan Winer and Victoria Nuland.

In August 2019, Judicial Watch obtained “302” report material from 2016 FBI interviews of Associate Deputy U.S. Attorney Bruce Ohr, who was removed from his position in December 2017. (A Form 302 is used by FBI agents to memorialize interviews they undertake during an investigation.) In a November 22, 2016, interview, Ohr said that “reporting on Trump’s ties to Russia were going to the Clinton Campaign, Jon Winer at the U.S. State Department and the FBI.” In a late September 2016 interview, Ohr described a person (likely Christopher Steele) as “desperate that Donald Trump not get elected and was passionate about him not being the U.S. President.” A report states that “Ohr knew that [Fusion GPS’s] Glen Simpson and others were talking to Victoria Nuland at the U.S. State Department.”

In July 2019, Judicial Watch obtained records revealing a September 2016 email exchange between then-Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland and Special Coordinator for Libya Jonathan Winer, a close associate of dossier author Christopher Steele, discussing a “face-to-face” meeting on a “Russian matter.”

In August 2018, the Justice Department admitted in a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit court filing that the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court held no hearings on the FISA spy warrant applications targeting Carter Page, a former Trump campaign part-time advisor who was the subject of four controversial FISA warrants.

Judicial Watch in July 2018 released records about FISA warrants targeting Page, which appeared to confirm that the FBI and DOJ misled the FISA court by withholding material information showing that Hillary Clinton’s campaign and the DNC were behind the “intelligence” used to persuade the court to approve the FISA warrants targeting the Trump team.

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Source: https://www.judicialwatch.org/judicial-watch-sues-for-fbis-2021-rosetta-stone-report-on-crossfire-hurricane/