Former FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino says he found a roughly 100-page classified document in a burn bag at the FBI that he describes as "basically the keys to the kingdom on Crossfire Hurricane" — and that what he read in that document left him permanently shaken, convinced that the Russia collusion probe was a deliberate fabrication involving far more people than the American public has ever been told, and living in daily fear of retaliation.
Bongino, who served as FBI Deputy Director for approximately 10 months before departing the bureau in January, made the stunning disclosure during an appearance on the "Hang Out with Sean Hannity" podcast Tuesday, describing in visceral terms the psychological impact of what he says he discovered.
"It was the mother lode," Bongino told Hannity. "And the document was so sensitive we were not even to carry it outside of the office. I will never be the same. I'm being as serious as a stroke right now. I'm really, I'm scared."
He did not disclose the specific classified contents of the document, but his description of its significance was unambiguous. "I'm reading this document and I'm like, 'I can't believe this happened in the United States,'" he said. "It wasn't just that it happened in the United States, it was that so many people knew about it. All you had to do was read it. This thing was bulls--- from the start."
A Document Meant to Be Destroyed
Burn bags are used by federal agencies to securely destroy sensitive classified materials — documents placed in them are intended to be incinerated rather than preserved. The fact that Bongino says he found a document of this magnitude in a burn bag raises an immediate and obvious question: was someone inside the FBI attempting to destroy evidence of Crossfire Hurricane's origins and scope?
Bongino described the document as reshaping his entire understanding of the Russia probe and said it implicated a far larger number of people than previous public investigations have established. "I was never the same after that, because after reading what I read about how many people did this to President Trump, this Russia hoax, collusion, Crossfire Hurricane bulls---, and not a single person stopped them, I'm terrified," he said.
The number of people who knew, saw what was happening, and said nothing — that detail appeared to disturb Bongino as deeply as the underlying misconduct itself. An institution in which scores of officials witnessed the manufacturing of a false investigation against a sitting president, had access to the evidence that proved it was false, and collectively chose silence is not an institution experiencing a few bad actors. It is an institution with a systemic and deeply embedded problem.
"I Think Every Day They're Going to Come for Me"
The personal toll Bongino described in the interview was striking in its candor. A former deputy director of the FBI — a man who spent his career in law enforcement — says he lives in daily fear of being targeted by the very institution he led.
"Don't think for a second that I don't think every day, and this is what's really sad… that they're going to come for me," Bongino said. "Like I'll probably be in some federal prison. That's what comes to my mind every day. I live like this the rest of my life because I know how they are."
That a man with Bongino's background, seniority, and institutional knowledge feels this level of fear about speaking truthfully about what he witnessed at the FBI is itself one of the most significant details in the interview. It is also entirely consistent with the documented pattern of retaliation against those who have attempted to expose FBI misconduct — from the whistleblowers who were suspended and had their clearances revoked for flagging concerns about the Hunter Biden investigation, to Christopher Porter, the NIC officer who was reassigned and fired for attempting to share classified intelligence about Chinese election interference with Congress.
The message the institutional Deep State has consistently sent to those who step out of line is clear. Bongino has heard it. He says he lives with it every day.
The Broader Context
Bongino's disclosure lands at a moment when the Crossfire Hurricane accountability reckoning has been accelerating rapidly. The recent declassification of Mueller investigation whistleblower testimony documented an FBI team that had a "let's get him" attitude toward Trump, plastered anti-Trump cartoons on office walls, and systematically withheld exculpatory evidence from the FISA court. The identification of "Witness 2" as Gavin Wilde connected the Ukraine impeachment complaint directly to the same network of anti-Trump intelligence officials who produced the flawed 2016 ICA. The Fani Files revealed how Fulton County prosecutors coordinated with the Biden White House and Adam Schiff's staff. John Solomon has reported that a Brennan indictment could come within weeks.
Into this landscape comes Bongino's account of a 100-page document — found in a burn bag, apparently intended for destruction — that he describes as the most comprehensive evidence he has ever encountered of how many people participated in and knew about the Crossfire Hurricane hoax, and how thoroughly it was manufactured from the beginning.
The document's existence will now presumably be a subject of active interest for investigators, including Special Counsel and lead weaponization prosecutor Joseph diGenova, who took over the Russia collusion accountability case earlier this month. Whether Bongino has already shared the document or its contents with investigators, or whether he has been formally interviewed about what he found, was not disclosed in the Hannity interview.
What Bongino made clear is this: what happened in Crossfire Hurricane was not the work of a small rogue faction within the FBI. It was known, it was widespread, and the evidence of it was being placed in burn bags.
Dan Bongino served as FBI Deputy Director from approximately March 2024 to January 2025. He departed the bureau in January. The Crossfire Hurricane accountability investigation is ongoing under lead prosecutor Joseph diGenova.
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04.30.2026