JUST IN: DOJ Floats Criminal Charges Over FBI Surveillance Of Hundreds Of Trump Officials, Supporters

The Justice Department is weighing potential criminal charges tied to FBI surveillance and counterintelligence probes that targeted President Donald Trump, his allies and hundreds of other Americans over the past decade, according to interviews and documents reviewed by Just the News.

The outlet reported that four consecutive, code-named investigations treated Trump as a national security threat from the 2016 campaign through January 2025, using tools typically reserved for terrorists and foreign spies. The operations were code-named Crossfire Hurricane, Round River, Plasmic Echo and Arctic Frost.

FBI Director Kash Patel has personally led an internal review of those operations, the report said, and investigators have found evidence that some actions may have been based on false, misleading or uncorroborated justifications. Just the News said many files were locked behind “prohibited access” restrictions, limiting visibility even for many FBI personnel.

Patel’s effort has been aided by whistleblowers, a small circle of senior FBI executives and members of Congress, including Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the report said.

Those who reviewed records described a broad dragnet that pierced the privacy of people around Trump, including members of Congress and staff, journalists, campaign advisers and defense lawyers. Some fell into categories the bureau treats as “special circumstances” because they involve constitutionally protected privileges, such as attorneys, lawmakers and reporters.

One whistleblower told the FBI that monitoring of Trump figures continued into the final days before Trump’s January 2025 inauguration, the outlet reported.

Just the News also cited a recent audit stating at least 1,200 people in the “special circumstances” category were subjected to FBI “assessments” between 2018 and 2024.

A senior official with direct knowledge of the review told the outlet the evidence could support a civil-rights conspiracy theory.

“There is growing evidence that may support a case that the FBI engaged between 2016 and 2025 in a conspiracy to violate the civil rights of Trump and his supporters under the color of government power,” the official said.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon told Just the News criminal charges are possible if investigators conclude federal officials intentionally violated civil liberties in politically weaponized investigations.

“The Department of Justice is at the heart of considering these issues right now, so I can’t really talk about the specifics, but in general terms, yes, the Civil Rights Division and the DOJ generally does have the tool of a criminal conspiracy statute for conspiracy against rights,” she said. “And this dates back to the start of the Ku Klux Klan.”

“I would say all of those things are on the table for lawyers and DOJ officials and others who conspired with them at the state level, state prosecutors, state police and so forth, who conspired to violate civil rights, and it could also include executive branch officials from the first administration who knowingly conspired and orchestrated a violation of federal civil rights,” she added.

Just the News reported federal prosecutors in Miami, led by U.S. Attorney Jason Reding Quiñones, are investigating alleged “weaponization” of intelligence and law enforcement while examining a potential conspiracy case spanning 2016, 2020 and 2024.

Two of the probes are already widely known, the report said: Crossfire Hurricane, tied to the now-discredited Russia collusion narrative, and Arctic Frost, which examined Trump’s effort to line up alternate electors ahead of the Jan. 6, 2021, certification. The outlet said Arctic Frost targeted nearly 400 conservative groups and individuals associated with Trump, citing evidence released by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The report said the two middle probes, Round River and Plasmic Echo, are still being declassified and may produce some of the most troubling findings. Plasmic Echo, tied to the Mar-a-Lago classified-documents investigation, has already surfaced internal messages showing agents questioning whether the facts met probable cause for a warrant, the outlet said.

“We continue to pass versions back and forth after our pause and concern about probable cause for any of the locations outlined…” an agent wrote, according to the report. “What is the guidance for continuing to work on this document without any new information?”

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