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He added, “They want to try to get me in an obstruction of justice trap for somehow impeding a federal investigation involving Donald Trump’s mishandling of classified information, but I don’t know how that would be possible, since I’ve never talked to any single fed on it.”
The recently released FBI affidavit cited a May 5, 2022, Breitbart News article of an interview with Patel where he named a February 18, 2022, NBC News report that said the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) found items marked “classified” among 15 boxes of White House records retrieved from Mar-a-Lago in January 2022. Patel told Breitbart News that the report was “misleading” since Trump had already declassified sets of documents, but that the classification markings had not been updated.
Patel said on Saturday he had no idea what documents were at Mar-a-Lago when the FBI raided. However, he said what he does know is that declassified Russiagate documents were among those handed over to NARA back in January 2022, and that those have been given to the DOJ with no word on when they might be given back.
Patel said those Russiagate documents have never been publicly released. After NARA took possession of them in January, they were given to the DOJ to be viewed for any personal identifiable information (PII) and were supposed to be given back to NARA, but have not yet been returned.
“Remember, Devin [Nunes] and I have always said we got out about 60% of the Russiagate stuff we wanted to get out. The rest was in that binder,” he said.
Patel said even though Trump had designated him as his representative to NARA on June 19, 2022, in order to facilitate the release of already declassified Russiagate documents, Patel has not had the opportunity to review any documents NARA possesses from before or after the raid, since NARA has claimed they could not verify his security clearance.
“They’re playing bureaucratic gymnastics where their position is, ‘We can’t verify your security clearance,’ even though I know I have active security clearance that’s been verified by multiple government agencies,” he said. “After asking for an update on the binder of documents and other material, NARA has said, ‘Oh, we sent it to DOJ. We don’t know what’s here anymore.’ You know, it’s the total run around.”
Patel said it is no coincidence that the people who are threatening him and are in charge of the current FBI investigation into the documents are the same people embroiled in the Russiagate scandal, which means they have the most to lose if the documents are released.
“The same Russiagate people who started that investigation are now running DOJ and are the same FBI guys at counterintelligence running this investigation. They all know the information we discovered — Devin and I — during Russiagate. And they all know what didn’t get out as a result of that big binder of stuff not ever being released by Trump,” he said.
“Some of the same counterintelligence guys that John Durham is looking at who worked for Strzok and Priestap are working on the Hunter Biden laptop case, and this case and others — it’s the same crew,” he said.
“The same people that were supposed to have committed Russiagate are now back in charge, and they know that if they go in and raid Trump’s house and say we have an ongoing counterintelligence investigation, that the documents will never be released,” he said. “They’re afraid of more of their corruption being exposed, more of their unlawful conduct. What happens when the rest comes out?”
He said Weissman and Strzok in particular know what those Russiagate documents say. “Now coincidentally, these guys are the ones screaming that I need to get a lawyer,” he said.
Patel, a former federal prosecutor, was the lead investigator for the House Intelligence Committee’s probe into the origins of Russiagate and authored a memo that not only exposed DOJ and FBI malfeasance, but led to the firing of several involved, including Strzok.