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A top FBI agent accused of political bias in the investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop resigned from the bureau.
Former FBI Washington Field Office Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Thibault was reportedly escorted out of the bureau last Friday, which is standard procedure, following allegations from a whistleblower alleging he showed political bias in his handling of investigations, according to Fox News.
“Thibault’s name has been in the news for his alleged bias and allegations that he tried to run interference in the Hunter Biden investigation,” Fox News reported. “Thibault was named by Senate Judiciary ranking member Chuck Grassley in a July 18 letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland. Grassley cited whistleblowers who alleged a pattern of political bias from high-ranking officials, including Thibault.”
Fox News reported that Thibault was one of 13 assistant special agents in charge at the FBI’s field office in Washington, D.C., that was not involved with the raid on former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Grassley said in late July that ‘highly credible’ whistleblowers had approached a senior Senate Republican and alleged a widespread effort within the FBI to downplay or discredit negative information about Hunter Biden. He cited a 2020 FBI intelligence assessment that was ‘used by an FBI headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation.’ He continued, ‘Based on allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,'” CBS News reported.
“In October 2020, one month before the election, “an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed” by a senior FBI agent at the bureau’s Washington Field office. An earlier letter from Grassley identified the agent as Timothy Thibault,” CBS News added.
“The allegations provided to my office appear to indicate that there was a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation,” Grassley claimed.
“Whistleblowers have reported to me, that although the FBI and Justice Department maintain policies dictating specific standards requiring substantial factual predication to initiate an investigation, Thibault and other Justice Department and FBI employees failed to comply with these requirements,” Grassley added.
Grassley continued, “In light of these allegations, I remain very concerned that political bias by a select group of Justice Department and FBI officials has infected the Justice Department’s and FBI’s usual process and procedure to open and pursue high-profile and politically charged investigations.”
Separately, the raid of Mar-a-Lago has only shined a brighter light on the FBI.
Federal intelligence agencies announced last week plans to review documents that were seized during the August 8 raid of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago.
“The Department of Justice and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence are working together to facilitate a classification review of relevant materials, including those recovered during the search,” an ODNI spokesperson said in a statement. “ODNI will also lead an Intelligence Community (IC) assessment of the potential risk to national security that would result from the disclosure of the relevant documents.”
The Epoch Times reported:
The ODNI oversees 17 intelligence entities, including the CIA and the FBI. The current director of national intelligence is Avril Haines, a Biden appointee.
FBI agents seized classified materials from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Aug. 8, according to an inventory list agents gave to Trump lawyers. Agents also found classified materials in boxes of documents that were transferred from Mar-a-Lago to the U.S. government in January, according to an affidavit authored by an FBI agent that was made public on Friday.
Trump has said he declassified the materials. U.S. authorities are investigating Trump for possible violation of federal law, including a law governing the transmittal of national defense information.
The ODNI will “closely coordinate” with the Department of Justice (DOJ), which includes the FBI, to make sure the intelligence community assessment “is conducted in a manner that does not unduly interfere with DOJ’s ongoing criminal investigation,” the ODNI spokesperson said.
Those plans may have to be put on hold after a federal judge announced Saturday her preliminary intent to appoint a special master, as requested by the attorneys for Trump, to review documents that the FBI took from Mar-a-Lago.
U.S. District Judge from the Southern District of Florida Judge Aileen M. Cannon said the decision was made based on submissions from the former president’s attorneys and “the exceptional circumstances presented.”
A hearing is set for Sept. 1 at 1:00 p.m. in West Palm Beach, Fla. Cannon also ordered the Justice Department to file a response by Aug. 30 and provide, “under seal,” a “more detailed Receipt for Property specifying all property seized pursuant to the search warrant executed on August 8, 2022.”
The current property receipt shows that FBI agents took approximately 20 boxes of items from the premises, including one set of documents marked as “Various classified/TS/SCI documents,” which refers to top secret/sensitive compartmented information.
