(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The FBI has released new documents showing that one of its informants was paid $20,000 to spy on Donald Trump during the Biden administration’s effort to throw him in prison.
The FBI documents, first reported by Just the News, are related to the Justice Department’s “Arctic Frost” operation, which investigated Trump and his allies for contesting the 2020 election.
A June 2023 FBI memo cites a “payment for information in the amount of $20,000.00 to [REDACTED] for information provided in support of captioned investigation.”
NEW: Jack Smith paid an FBI informant (CHS) to get dirt on Trump in Arctic Frost investigation pic.twitter.com/NGDP6PIFbS
— Julie Kelly 🇺🇸 (@julie_kelly2) January 10, 2026
The memo was accompanied by an email, in which an agent wrote to the DOJ: “As discussed, request your office’s concurrence in our proposed payment of $20,000 for [the FBI informant’s] provision of information in support of the investigation.”
Arctic Frost documents have shown that at least 156 individuals were subjected to the secret probe. Some of them, including the abovementioned FBI informant, may have flipped on Trump.
Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, for instance, was alleged to have been an FBI informant who wore a wire to spy on Trump.
Rumors of Meadows’s defection from Team Trump have persisted ever since his subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee in 2021. Sources close to the matter said specifically that Meadows was granted immunity if he would agree to testify before a grand jury.
According to those same sources, Meadows repeatedly emphasized to Smith and his legal team that he tried to persuade Trump that the 2020 election voter-fraud allegations had no basis.
However, Meadows doesn’t appear to be the informant named in the newly released FBI records, as his name is too long to fit the redacted space in the documents.
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
