The FBI has told a federal judge it would need approximately 158 years to process more than two million pages of records found in a previously undisclosed storage room at its headquarters, according to Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.
The records are the subject of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit Judicial Watch filed after FBI Director Kash Patel and then-Deputy Director Dan Bongino publicly acknowledged discovering documents that had never gone through the bureau’s normal records-processing procedures.
“The FBI just told a federal judge in this case that, based on the rate of production, 500 a month, it will take 158 years to process the records in the hidden room, the burn bag room. 158 years,” Fitton said.
Fitton said Patel and Bongino had disclosed the room’s existence and discussed records tied to investigations and government actions targeting President Donald Trump.
“Kash Patel was FBI director, Dan Bongino was hired as assistant FBI director for a few months, and Dan and Kash disclosed that there was a secret room they were made aware of with documents about the weaponization and lawfare targeting Trump,” Fitton said. “Jack Smith documents, they talked about burn bags, Russiagate documents, etc.”
Judicial Watch requested the material through FOIA and later sued after concluding the FBI had not responded properly. The bureau initially reported roughly 1.9 million records in the room; its latest court filing puts the total above two million pages.
“And so they said, well, we’ll give you 500 records a month or we’ll review 500 records a month,” Fitton said. “And I don’t even think they were even reviewing them, they wanted to organize and digitize them.”
Questions About Prior Searches
Fitton said Judicial Watch also wants to know whether the room and its contents were searched in connection with the group’s earlier FOIA requests and lawsuits.
“By the way, why didn’t you search this room? I don’t mean you, Kash, or Dan Bongino or whoever. Why didn’t the FBI search this room in response to our other FOIA lawsuits and FOIA requests?” Fitton said.
Judicial Watch is asking the court for permission to conduct limited discovery, including a deposition on who found the room, when it was discovered, who had access to it, its security classification, and how records ended up stored in filing cabinets, safes, boxes and burn bags.
“We want answers as to what’s going on here,” Fitton said. “They were playing games with FOIA, they’re playing games as to what’s in that room. So we’re asking the court for the right to conduct limited discovery.”
Fitton said the FBI has told the court it has not yet even opened a safe believed to hold additional records. “So they still haven’t even opened all the doors in the room, practically speaking,” he said. “They’ve got a safe they haven’t looked through yet.”
The room had previously been identified as a sensitive compartmented information facility containing multiple safes or file cabinets. Early estimates of the material ranged from about 950,000 to 1.9 million records before the current figure surpassed two million pages. Fitton also referenced a May 29, 2025, Fox News interview in which Bongino said some of the material dated to the James Comey era and had not been processed through standard FBI procedures.
Comparison to Epstein Files
Fitton argued the FBI should commit far more resources to reviewing the material rather than expecting Judicial Watch to narrow its request. “And the suggestion is that Judicial Watch should therefore curtail our request, as opposed to them reviewing and releasing, in an emergency fashion, these records in a more timely way,” he said.
He contrasted the proposed 158-year timeline with the government’s release of records related to Jeffrey Epstein. “I know these are more important than the Epstein files, and the Epstein files demonstrate, when the pressure’s on, they can release 3 million plus records relatively quickly,” Fitton said.
Fitton also cautioned that processing 500 pages a month would not guarantee Judicial Watch actually receives all of them, since some records could still be withheld under classification or other exemptions and would have to be challenged separately.
“The FBI isn’t above the law, and they’re hiding records from the American people required to be released under the Freedom of Information Act, not in 158 years, but according to the law, in 20 days,” Fitton said.
Judicial Watch has a court hearing scheduled for next week to press for more information about the records and the FBI’s handling of the collection. “Instead of telling a federal court judge and the American people they have to wait 158 years, they should be saying, we’re getting them out on an emergency basis. You’ll have them in two months,” Fitton said.
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