Sen. Chuck Grassley is calling for more information about the FBI’s raid on a former agency contractor who had given a watchdog documents claiming that federal officials failed to investigate possible criminal activity related to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the Clinton Foundation, and the sale of Canadian mining company Uranium One to a Russian company’s subsidiary.

Grassley, R-Iowa, has sent a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and to the Department of Justice’s internal watchdog, seeking more details on the raid of Dennis Nathan Cain in Maryland on Nov. 16, giving them until Dec. 12 to respond, reports Fox News.

Cain’s attorney, Michael Socarras, told The Daily Caller after 16 FBI agents raided the home on Nov. 19 that the agent who led the raid accused Cain of being in possession of stolen federal property.

Cain claims he that he has been recognized as a protected whistleblower under federal law by DOJ watchdog Michael Horowitz. Socarras also said Horowitz sent Cain’s information to the House and Senate intelligence committees.

Grassley, in his letter to Wray, asked why Cain’s house was raided, if the FBI knew of his disclosures to Horowitz, and if the disclosures were considered protected. Further, he asked if agents seized any classified information.

MOSCOW: Moscow on Wednesday dismissed US claims it is violating a major Cold War treaty limiting mid-range nuclear arms, as a senior general lashed out at Washington’s attempts to “contain”

Russia

.

The tense rhetoric comes a day after Secretary of State

Mike Pompeo

 said Washington would withdraw from the treaty within 60 days if Russia does not dismantle missiles that the US claims breach the deal.

“Groundless accusations are again being repeated,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

Zakharova said “no proof has been produced to support this American position” on the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which she described as a cornerstone of global security.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said facts had been distorted “in order to camouflage the true goal of the US withdrawing from the treaty”.

In October, President

Donald Trump

 sparked global concern by declaring the United States would pull out of the deal and build up America’s nuclear stockpile “until people come to their senses”.

But on Monday, the US leader said he wants talks with his Chinese and Russian counterparts Xi Jinping and

Vladimir Putin

 “to head off a major and uncontrollable arms race”.

Meanwhile, the Russian Army Chief of Staff Vasily Gerasimov said Wednesday that Moscow would increase the capabilities of its ground-based strategic nuclear arms.

“One of the main destructive factors complicating the international situation is how the US is acting as it attempts to retain its dominant role in the world,” he said in comments released by the defence ministry.

“It is for these purposes that Washington and its allies are taking comprehensive, concerted measures to contain Russia and discredit its role in international affairs.”

Signed in 1987 by then US president

Ronald Reagan

 and

Mikhail Gorbachev

, the last Soviet leader, the INF resolved a crisis over Soviet nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles targeting Western capitals.

But it was a bilateral treaty between the US and the then

Soviet Union

, so it puts no restrictions on other major military actors like China.

Pompeo said at a meeting with fellow

NATO

 foreign ministers on Tuesday that there was no reason why the US “should continue to cede this crucial military advantage” to rival powers.

NATO said it was now “up to Russia” to save the treaty.

The Trump administration has complained of Moscow’s deployment of Novator 9M729 missiles, which Washington says fall under the treaty’s ban on missiles that can travel distances of between 310 and 3,400 miles (500 and 5,500 kilometres).

The nuclear-capable Russian cruise missiles are mobile and hard to detect and can hit cities in Europe with little or no warning, according to NATO, dramatically changing the security calculus on the continent.

The State Department said in a statement Tuesday that it had provided Moscow with “more than enough information for Russia to engage substantively on the issue”.

The information included details on the missile’s test history and the names of companies involved in developing and producing the missile and its launcher, the State Department said.

US-Russia ties are under deep strain over accusations Moscow meddled in the 2016 US presidential election.

The two states are also at odds over Russian support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria’s civil war, and the conflict in Ukraine.