(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) Another trove of newly unearthed Biden-era files suggest that the FBI attempted to retain purported evidence related to its prosecution of President Donald Trump until 2030 — when he would presumably be out of office.
The documents, reported Tuesday by Just the News, add to a growing body of records that have detailed the breadth of the aggressive actions targeting Trump, Republican lawmakers and conservative organizations connected to the 2020 election.
According to the report, the retention effort came as part of a broader push to preserve materials gathered by then-Special Counsel Jack Smith following the dismissal of related cases. Such materials are typically handled under DOJ procedures once a case is closed.
The documents in question were reportedly created in 2025, as Trump was preparing to return to office in January, and relate to investigations tied to the certification of the 2020 presidential election.
The decision to retain the evidence has raised questions about whether federal officials were preserving the option to revisit the case after Trump leaves office, when DOJ rules barring the prosecution of a sitting president would no longer apply.
The case itself was closed without prejudice, meaning it could be refiled at a later date.
As reported by Just the News:
“One of the key ‘Case Closing’ documents obtained by Just the News – originating from the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s CR-15 team – was dated a couple of weeks into Trump’s second term, on February 5, 2025, when many holdover FBI agents and leaders were still in place.
The newly-released closing document from early 2025 repeated the extensive claims of criminality against Trump, which had been pursued by Smith and the bureau, and it sought to retain all of the evidence for a half decade until at least February 2030, when Trump would be a former president once more and thus when the DOJ guidance prohibiting the prosecution of a sitting president would no longer be in force.”
According to the outlet, the document — titled “Arctic Frost – Election Law Matters – Sensitive Investigative Matter” — included supporting materials such as a “Deputy Special Counsel Concurrence” and the “Retention of Evidence Approval.”
In response to the findings, FBI Director Kash Patel said he had moved to eliminate the office involved in handling the matter.
“The American people deserve to know how this egregious weaponization of power to target political opponents and President Trump happened inside an institution meant to protect them,” Patel told Just the News. “We shut down the weaponized CR-15 squad, and we are going to keep following the facts until there is full accountability. The FBI exists to protect the country, not to preserve political prosecutions for a future administration.”
