Federal Court Refused to Unseal Documents of FBI Raid on Clinton Whistleblower

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Last year FBI agents raided whistleblower Dennis Nathan Cain's home after he leaked Clinton Foundation and Uranium One documents.

But a federal court refused to unseal government documents that would have revealed the real reasons behind the FBI raid. 

The U.S. District Court of Maryland’s Chief Magistrate Judge Beth P. Gesner, another Clinton delegate, also refused to reveal the reasons for keeping the documents secret in a single-page Dec. 20 order.

Federal Magistrate Judge Stephanie Gallagher allowed the raid on Dennis Cain’s home.

She then sealed the documents justifying it.

Gallagher was sent an official request from The Daily Caller News Foundation to unseal the documents, noting that Cain is a recognized whistleblower, according to his attorney.

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The DCNF said the documents should be released in light of “an urgent public interest” surrounding the case,

The court should disclose whether prosecutors informed Gallagher that Cain was a protected whistleblower under the Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, according to Attorneys and experts.

Last year, three Clinton Foundation whistleblowers handed over hundreds of pages of documents to investigators that prove the organization was used as a pay-for-play scheme during Hillary's time as secretary of state.

The bombshell announcement was made by Rep. Mark Meadows, who is head of the House Oversight Subcommittee.

The documents revealed that federal officials overlooked possible criminal activity regarding the Clinton Foundation and Rosatom, the Russian company that boughtUranium One.

But Cain's home was raided by 16 FBI agents, according to Socarras.

Cain even informed to the FBI agent leading the raid he was a protected whistleblower, but to no avail.

Maryland U.S. Attorney Robert Hur opposed the information request stating that unsealing the documents would “would seriously jeopardize the integrity of the ongoing investigation.”

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According to the DailyCaller: His letter, which was also sent to TheDCNF, said nothing about the merits of the government’s case or why the raid was warranted. His specific arguments remain under seal.

TheDCNF subsequently told Gallagher in a Dec. 12 letter:

“We wish to narrow our request to obtain any documents presented by the government that informed the judge of Mr. Cain’s status as a whistleblower.”

“It seems the Justice Department should be able to address [TheDCNF’s] more narrowly tailored request without compromising the investigation,” the director for investigations at the nonpartisan government watchdog group the Project on Government Oversight, Nick Schwellenbach, told TheDCNF.

“Revealing whether the court was informed of his protected disclosures, on its own, doesn’t seem to compromise anything.”

And Mark Zaid, an attorney who has defended government whistleblowers in national security cases, told TheDCNF: “It would be interesting to know if the judge was aware this person had invoked whistleblower status.”

Kel McClanahan, an attorney who represents government whistleblowers and is the executive director of National Security Counselors, told TheDCNF: “Should the judge have considered that he was a whistleblower and they were looking for whistleblower stuff? Yes.”

McClanahan added that government officials could face punishment if they hid information from the magistrate.

“Hiding the ball can be considered sanctionable conduct because there’s the duty to what’s called ‘candor to the court,'” he told TheDCNF.

He said Judge Gallagher could eventually rule that the Department of Justice “‘did not demonstrate complete candor to the court.’ It doesn’t affect her conduct. It affects the DOJ’s conduct.”

The National Security Counselors is a Washington, D.C., nonprofit law firm that specializes in national security, information, and privacy law. It often represents intelligence community employees and contractors.

McClanahan told TheDCNF: “It’s a matter of personal preference on the part of the DOJ attorney who argued it and the FBI agents on any given day about how much information to give to a judge. They probably included the bare minimum.”

“What they may not have included was information that they have should have provided,” he continued. “So they are rolling the dice.”

Sen. Chuck Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked FBI Director Christopher Wray in a Nov. 30 letter whether the bureau was “aware at the time of the raid that Mr. Cain had made what appeared to be protected disclosures to the Inspector General?

If so, was the FBI aware that these disclosures were passed to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees, per the [whistleblower act]?”

Grassley gave Wray until Dec.12 to respond. The FBI has not yet replied, according to the Iowa Republican’s office.

Grassley has been a dogged Senate champion of government whistleblower rights.

He announced the establishment of the bipartisan Senate Whistleblower Protection Caucus in 2015 to raise awareness of the need for adequate protection against retaliation for whistleblowers.