Sen. Chuck Grassley released internal FBI and DOJ records showing partisan officials shut down a proposed criminal investigation into Hillary Clinton and the DNC over concealed 2016 campaign payments that funded the Steele dossier. The officials who shut down the inquiry later played central roles in approving and overseeing Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation into President Trump.
The documents include internal emails and an FBI Electronic Communication provided to Grassley through his oversight request. According to Grassley, FBI agents outlined a fact pattern indicating Clinton and the DNC hid expenditures routed to Fusion GPS, which produced the discredited dossier alleging ties between Donald Trump and Russia. The Federal Election Commission later fined both Clinton and the DNC in 2022 for disguising those payments.
Grassley says the proposal to open a criminal investigation was rejected by Richard Pilger of the DOJ’s Public Integrity Section and J.P. Cooney, then at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Pilger later played a central role in authorizing the launch of Jack Smith’s Arctic Frost investigation, while Cooney went on to serve as Smith’s deputy.
“Courageous whistleblowers came to my office years ago to sound the alarm that the Justice Department inappropriately interfered in efforts to investigate potential criminal activity committed by Hillary Clinton and her campaign,” Grassley said, adding that the officials who “rushed to cover for Clinton” aggressively pursued Arctic Frost, “a runaway train aimed directly at President Trump and the Republican political apparatus.”
