The FBI is being accused of “serious misconduct” and “outrageous disregard of the law” after raiding the home of a recognized Department of Justice whistleblower earlier this month, Richard Pollock of The Daily Caller News Foundation reported in a shocking exclusive Thursday night.
The raid happened after former FBI contractor Dennis Nathan Cain privately transmitted documents pertaining to the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One to the Justice Department’s inspector general and the Senate and House intelligence committees, according to his attorney.
The Justice Department’s inspector general was informed that the documents show that federal officials failed to investigate potential criminal activity regarding former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that purchased Uranium One, a document reviewed by The Daily Caller News Foundation alleges.
The delivered documents also show that then-FBI Director Robert Mueller failed to investigate allegations of criminal misconduct pertaining to Rosatom and to other Russian government entities attached to Uranium One, the document reviewed by TheDCNF alleges. Mueller is now the special counsel investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia during the 2016 election.
Someone must have tipped off the FBI that Cain had the potentially explosive documents because sixteen G-men came calling.
“The bureau raided my client to seize what he legally gave Congress about the Clinton Foundation and Uranium One,” Cain’s lawyer, Michael Socarras, told the DCNF, accusing the FBI of having “outrageous disregard” of whistleblower protections.
The agents raided the whistleblower’s home on the morning of Nov. 19, Socarras told the DCNF.
The raid was permitted by a court order signed on Nov. 15 by federal magistrate Stephanie A. Gallagher in the U.S. District Court for Baltimore and obtained by TheDCNF.
A special agent from the FBI’s Baltimore division, who led the raid, charged that Cain possessed stolen federal property and demanded entry to his private residence, Socarras told TheDCNF.
According to the attorney, Cain informed the agent that he was “a recognized protected whistleblower under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act” and that Justice Department IG Michael Horowitz had recognized his whistleblower status.
Cain further told the FBI agent the potentially damaging classified information had been properly transmitted to the Senate and House Intelligence committees as permitted under the act, Socarras said. The agent immediately directed his agents to begin a sweep of the suburban home, anyway.
Socarras said that even though the “frightened and intimidated” whistleblower quickly produced the documents, the agents continued to ransack the home for the next six hours.
“After asking and getting my approval to do so, DOJ IG Michael Horowitz had a member of his staff physically take Mr. Cain’s classified document disclosure to the House and Senate Intelligence committees,” Socarras told the DCNF.
“For the bureau to show up at Mr. Cain’s home suggesting that those same documents are stolen federal property, and then proceed to seize copies of the same documents after being told at the house door that he is a legally protected whistleblower who gave them to Congress, is an outrageous disregard of the law,” he continued.
“I cannot believe the Bureau informed the federal magistrate who approved the search warrant that they wanted to search the home of an FBI whistleblower to seize the information that he confidentially disclosed to the IG and Congress,” Socarras said.
Cain reportedly discovered the information while working for an FBI contractor. He transmitted the documents to the IG in a manner reminiscent of a spy thriller.
Cain met with a senior member of Horowitz’s office at a church close to the White House to deliver the documents to the IG, according to Socarras.
Cain sat in a pew with a hoodie and sun glasses, Socarras said. Cain held a double-sealed envelope containing a flash drive with the documents. The IG official met him and, without saying a word, took the pouch over Cain’s shoulder and left.
The two law enforcement officials directed the documents be sent to the Senate and House Intelligence committees for their examination, according to Socarras, who said that a high-level IG official hand-delivered the documents to the the two intelligence committees.
“After the raid, and having received my name and phone number from Mr. Cain as his lawyer, an FBI agent actually called my client directly to discuss his seized electronics,” Socarras told the DCNF. “Knowingly bypassing the lawyer of a represented client is serious misconduct.”
He added: “The [whistleblower act] authorizes employees of contractors to take government property and give it to the two intelligence committees confidentially.”
The FBI raid occurred on November 19, according to the report. One day later, on November 20, House Republicans called U.S. Attorney John Huber to appear before Congress to give testimony on his investigation into the Clinton Foundation.
“Mr. Huber with the Department of Justice and the FBI has been having an investigation – at least part of his task was to look at the Clinton Foundation and what may or may not have happened as it relates to improper activity with that charitable foundation, so we’ve set a hearing date for December the 5th,” Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told The Hill.
Meadows said that Republicans would dig into several areas of concern, including “whether any tax-exempt proceeds for personal gain and whether the Foundation complied with IRS laws.”
Back in January of this year, Fox News reported that the U.S. attorney’s office and FBI had been looking into the Clinton Foundation for months. Additionally, the Department of Justice was supposedly also looking into the Clinton email probe, the Uranium One investigation, and the allegation that the Obama administration quashed a DEA investigation into Hezbollah narco-terror activities in order to smooth the way for the Iran nuclear deal.
Nothing appears to have been done on any of those fronts.
An FBI spokesman told the DCNF: “On Nov. 19, the FBI conducted court-authorized law enforcement activity in the Union Bridge, Maryland area. At this time, we have no further comment.”
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