Executive Summary
- The Senate Judiciary Committee is investigating whistleblower claims that Justice Department officials obstructed an FBI inquiry.
- The thwarted probe reportedly concerned the financing of the Steele Dossier by the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign and the DNC.
- The two officials implicated, Richard Pilger and J.P. Cooney, later held senior roles in the special counsel investigation of President Donald Trump.
- Evidence cited includes 2019 emails where the officials allegedly dismissed an FBI agent’s concerns about concealed payments.
The Senate Judiciary Committee has launched an investigation into allegations that top Justice Department officials obstructed an FBI inquiry concerning the Hillary Clinton campaign’s financing of the 2016 Steele Dossier. According to Senator Charles E. Grassley, the committee chairman, a whistleblower has provided evidence suggesting two officials, who later played key roles in an investigation into President Donald Trump, were involved in blocking the earlier probe.
Senator Grassley released email exchanges from June 2019 between an FBI agent and two senior Justice Department lawyers, Richard Pilger and J.P. Cooney. The correspondence reportedly documents the officials dismissing the agent’s request to investigate what the agent termed the “unambiguous concealment” of payments made by the Democratic National Committee and the Clinton campaign to fund the anti-Trump dossier.
The FBI agent stated in an email that Mr. Pilger used veiled threats “intended to have a chilling effect and stop me from asking questions.” The agent wrote, “I have never been met with such suspicion or response intended to have me go away.”
Both Mr. Pilger, then the Director of the DOJ’s Election Crimes Branch, and Mr. Cooney later held senior roles in the Special Counsel’s “Arctic Frost” investigation, which led to an indictment of President Trump on charges related to the 2020 election. Mr. Grassley highlighted this connection, stating, “These records show the same partisans who rushed to cover for Clinton rabidly pursued Arctic Frost.”
The DNC and the Clinton campaign were not criminally investigated for the campaign finance matter. However, following complaints filed by watchdog groups, the Federal Election Commission (FEC) fined the Clinton campaign $8,000 and the DNC $105,000 in 2022 for misreporting over $1 million in payments intended for the dossier as “legal services.”
Senator Grassley has requested additional records from the Attorney General and the FBI Director related to the matter. It is important to note that all individuals are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.