FBI and Jack Smith Team Secretly Preserved Evidence to Enable Prosecution of Trump After He Leaves Office

WASHINGTON — Newly obtained FBI documents reveal that agents working with Special Counsel Jack Smith deliberately closed their investigation into former President Donald Trump while preserving all evidence and materials until at least February 2030 — long after Trump’s second term ends — in what appears to be a calculated plan to enable future prosecution once he is out of office.

The internal FBI memos and emails, part of the so-called “Arctic Frost” probe into alleged election interference, were obtained by Just the News and date to early 2025. They show agents in the FBI’s Washington Field Office’s CR-15 team memorialized their belief that Trump and his allies committed multiple federal crimes to overturn the 2020 results in seven battleground states.

The February 5, 2025, “Case Closing” document repeated the core allegations: that Trump, after losing the election, “resorted to crimes to try to stay in office” through three alleged conspiracies — interfering with the Electoral Count Act process, obstructing Congress’s certification of the election, and conspiring against Americans’ voting rights.

Rather than return or destroy the evidence as is standard when a case is closed, the FBI secured high-level approval — including from the Special Counsel’s Office — to retain everything under a litigation hold and “freeze list.” The retention order explicitly set February 1, 2030, as the earliest possible disposal date, citing ongoing litigation and the Office of Legal Counsel’s long-standing policy against prosecuting a sitting president.

Special Counsel Jack Smith had moved to dismiss the federal election case “without prejudice” after Trump’s November 2024 victory, leaving open the possibility of refiling later. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan granted the request.

The closing memos required approval up to the FBI director level, matching the high-level sign-off used to open the investigation under then-Attorney General Merrick Garland, Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

FBI Director Kash Patel called the actions “egregious weaponization of power to target political opponents” and said the bureau has shut down the CR-15 squad while pursuing full accountability.

Former U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins criticized the approach as turning prosecutorial discretion “upside down,” saying prosecutors should close files cleanly rather than preserve a “political narrative” and “roadmap” for future use.

The documents were first reported by Just the News. You can read the full Just The News article which includes the supporting FBI records here: Biden FBI secretly set up Trump to be indicted after he leaves office, Arctic Frost memos suggest