New information has surfaced about the “burn bags” discovered this week in a secure FBI facility, suggesting they contained evidence linking longtime Democratic donor George Soros to the Trump–Russia investigation.
At 94, Soros has long been a target of conservative conspiracy theories, and these latest claims hint at an alleged plot by Obama–era officials to undermine President Trump with manipulated or false intelligence tying him to Russian interference in the 2016 election.
This week, CIA Director John Ratcliffe and FBI Director Kash Patel revealed that a classified appendix from Special Counsel John Durham’s report on Russiagate was among the materials stored in those burn bags inside a SCIF—rooms designated for lawmakers to review sensitive, compartmented information.
The previously undisclosed room was discovered deep within FBI headquarters by members of Patel’s team. Inside, they found bags labeled for destruction—some allegedly containing evidence linking Soros’s Open Society Foundation to an FBI plan to circulate unfounded Trump-Russia claims even before the launch of the agency’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation into the matter.
The annex of Durham’s report contains what U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-IA) called “one of the biggest political scandals and cover-ups in American history.” A source told Fox News that although the appendix does not clearly outline the type of intelligence gathering conducted on Trump and Russia, it details—“with alarming specificity”—the steps the FBI would later take in the investigation.
The appendix also reportedly contains information linking George Soros’ Open Society Foundation to foreign sources from which some of the Trump-Russia allegations originated. According to the document, Russian hackers breached the foundation’s email servers in 2016.
“Two of the apparently hacked emails appear to have originated from the Open Society Foundations,” the appendix states, noting that the author of the Soros foundation’s emails was Leonard Bernardo, who was the regional director for Eurasia at the Open Society Foundations.
“During the first stage of the campaign, due to lack of direct evidence, it was decided to disseminate the necessary information through the FBI-affiliated…technical structures… in particular, the Crowdstrike and ThreatConnect companies, from where the information would then be disseminated through leading U.S. publications,” Bernardo reportedly wrote in an email, per the appendix.
“The media analysis on the DNC hacking appears solid…. Julie (Clinton Campaign Advisor) says it will be a long-term affair to demonize Putin and Trump. Now it is good for a post-convention bounce,” Bernardo allegedly wrote, per the appendix. “Later the FBI will put more oil into the fire.” Another email reportedly from Bernardo states: “HRC (Hillary Rodham Clinton) approved Julie’s idea about Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections.”
“This should distract people from her own missing email, especially if the affair goes to the Olympic level,” Bernardo continued, per the annex. “The point is making the Russian play a U.S. domestic issue. Say something like a critical infrastructure threat for the election to feel manic since both POTUS and VPOTUS have acknowledge the fact IC would speed up searching for evidence that is regrettably still unavailable.”
Just days later, the FBI’s “Crossfire Hurricane” investigation opened on July 31, 2016, Fox News reported.