Judicial Watch: Lawsuit Uncovers that FBI Found Up to 1.9 Million Jack Smith and Other Records in ‘Hidden Room’

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch revealed today that the U.S. Department of Justice has reported that the FBI found about 1.9 million pages of records that are responsive to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit. These documents were reportedly stored in a “hidden room” at FBI headquarters and were first revealed by former Deputy Director Dan Bongino (Judicial Watch v U.S. Department of Justice (No.1:25-cv-04047)). 

According to the FBI’s filing, a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) contains several safes holding between approximately 950,000 and 1,900,000 pages of records. The FBI estimates that processing these materials could take up to a year:

The Complaint (ECF No. 1) in this action asks for three items of records.

For item 1, Plaintiff seeks “[a]ll documents referenced by Deputy Director Dan Bongino” (emphasis added) concerning a room located in FBI Headquarters. The room referenced is a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) that houses records related to both closed and open investigations. The FBI continues to assess the contents of the room and the total volume of records in the room. The FBI continues to determine what records, if any, are responsive to the request.

Until all documents have been digitized and reviewed, the Defendant cannot identify the anticipated number of documents responsive to the request or the anticipated date(s) for release of the requested documents. The FBI can provide the following update about the status of this process. Specifically, the FBI has assessed that the room presently contains the following records that require digitization before they can be scoped for responsiveness and processed for production: several five-drawer filing cabinets (safes) that the FBI estimates to include approximately, between 950,000 and 1,900,000 pages (which may fluctuate depending on whether there is material on both the front and back of the pages). The FBI estimates that volume of records will take between 10 to 12 months to process.

The records appear to include the following:

Legacy Files: These records consist of older legacy records, the majority of which relate to two closed, historical investigations. These records belong to the DOJ Office of Inspector General (OIG), and prior to release, must be sent to the DOJ OIG for consultation on its equities in the records.

Other files: These records consist of more recent records related to various investigations, including, for example, active investigations and prior Special Counsel investigative records, many of which are likely to require consultation with other government agencies prior to release.

Following the digitization of the records described above, the FBI must scope the records for responsiveness and then process the records and complete consultations with other government agencies. Given the records’ subject matters and storage in a SCIF, it is also likely the records will need to be reviewed for classification issues.

To reduce the workload associated with this process, the parties will confer to determine whether it’s possible to reduce the scope of the records at issue for item 1. The parties will report on the result of those discussions in the next joint status report.

Items 2 and 3 seek the following records:

“All internal FBI communications among officials in the offices of FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino related to the discovery of these documents.” 

“All directives sent to officials from the offices of the Director and/or Deputy Director regarding the handling and disposition of the documents referenced in Bullet 1.”

For items 2 and 3, the FBI continues its search for responsive records located in any database systems, SharePoint sites, as well as paper or manual files. The parties will provide an update on the status of the search for records potentially responsive to Items 2 and 3 in the next joint status report.

The court filing comes in the Judicial Watch lawsuit filed last year, after the FBI, a component of the Justice Department, failed to respond to a June 2025 FOIA request for: 

1.      All documents referenced by Deputy Director Dan Bongino as having been discovered in a room “hidden from us and not mentioned to us,” discussed in a Fox News interview at https://x.com/libsoftiktok/status/1928099455095427383;

2.      All internal FBI communications among officials in the offices of FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino related to the discovery of these documents; and

3.      All directives sent to officials from the offices of the Director and/or Deputy Director regarding the handling and disposition of the documents.

In a Fox News interview on May 29, 2025, then-FBI Deputy Director Bongino stated:

There was a room [in FBI Headquarters], and we found stuff. A lot of stuff … hidden from us at least and not mentioned to us. And then found stuff in there. A lot is from the Comey era. We are working … right now to declassify. And just so you know, because I get the public—I totally understand people saying “well do it now.” The process is: not all of the information is ours to declassify. Some is other intelligence agencies’…. We literally can’t do it. Once that gets done … and you read some of the stuff we found—that, by the way, was not processed through the normal procedure, digitizing and putting in FBI records. We found it in bags, hiding under Jim Comey’s FBI. You’re going to be stunned.

In July 2025, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley issued a press release titled “Clinton Campaign Plan to Falsely Tie Trump to Russia and FBI’s Failure to Investigate” concerning additional Comey-era events. Grassley made public the formerly Classified Appendix (“Durham annex”) to John Durham’s 2023 Special Counsel report. Grassley’s office stated:

The Durham annex contains previously classified information exposing a reported Clinton campaign plan to falsely tie President Donald Trump to Russia.

The annex also goes into further detail on matters discussed in the Unclassified Report, specifically:

• • Potential election influence by a foreign government regarding Hillary Clinton;

• • False statements to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISA court) regarding FISA renewal applications for Carter Page;

• • The FBI’s failure – under the leadership of then-Director James Comey – to investigate intelligence that the Clinton campaign may have created the Russia collusion hoax. Meanwhile the Comey-led FBI used the Steele Dossier – a Clinton campaign creation – to obtain FISA warrants on Carter Page.

Despite the passage of nine months since the “hidden room” records request and four months since the lawsuit was filed, the Bureau has yet to provide an estimated completion date for its search, the number of responsive records for key categories, or a timeline for production of documents.

In the March 12 filing, Judicial Watch urged the court to compel the FBI to complete its search for key records within 60 days and to establish a firm production schedule.

The court responded quickly, ordering the FBI to disclose how many high-level, internal FBI communications and directives exist about handling these secret documents by the next filing on May 11, 2026.

“This is an astonishing and troubling revelation. The FBI and Justice Department must go all out to release the nearly 2 million secret FBI and DOJ files on the lawfare against Trump and whatever else the Obama and Biden gangs don’t want Americans to know about,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “I have no doubt these records are far more important than the Epstein files.”

This is the latest in a series of Judicial Watch investigations targeting shady FBI weaponization and abuse of power.

In August 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 May 2020, Judicial Watch uncovered the FBI “EC”—the electronic communication that officially launched the counterintelligence investigation, termed “Crossfire Hurricane,” of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. The document was written by former FBI official Peter Strzok and was obtained as the result of a Judicial Watch FOIA lawsuit for: “The Electronic Communication that initiated the counterintelligence investigation of Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.”

In August 2019, Judicial Watch uncovered “302” report material from FBI interviews with Bruce Ohr, who was removed from his position as U.S. Associate Deputy Attorney General in December 2017.

In March 2019, Judicial Watch received heavily redacted records from the Justice Department that reveal that Ohr remained in regular contact with former British spy and Fusion GPS contractor Christopher Steele after Steele was terminated by the FBI in November 2016 for revealing to the media his position as an FBI confidential informant.

In December 2018, Judicial Watch uncovered U.S. State Department documents showing classified information was researched and disseminated to multiple U.S. Senators by the Obama administration immediately prior to Trump’s inauguration. The documents reveal that among those receiving the classified documents were Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA), Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), and Sen. Robert Corker (R-TN). Judicial Watch obtained the documents through a FOIA lawsuit for records of the Obama State Department’s last-minute efforts to share classified information about Russia election interference issues with Cardin.

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

Also in August, Judicial Watch forced the release of heavily redacted records about Christopher Steele, the former British spy, hired with Clinton campaign and Democratic National Committee funds, who authored the infamous dossier targeting Trump during last year’s presidential campaign. The documents show that Steele was cut off as a “Confidential Human Source” (CHS) after he disclosed his relationship with the FBI to a third party. The documents also show at least 11 FBI payments to Steele in 2016 and document that he was admonished for unknown reasons in February 2016.

In July 2018, Judicial Watch released documents about FISA warrants targeting Carter Page, who had been a Trump campaign adviser.

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