FBI official transferred after whistleblower allegations of political bias, senator reveals

Akey senator says a top FBI official has been moved from his leadership perch in Washington after internal whistleblowers complained he was part of an effort to interfere in politically sensitive investigations, allegations Director Chris Wray now calls "deeply troubling."

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, told Just the News on Thursday that the FBI alerted him that Assistant Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault had been moved to another unspecified job.

The transfer came after Grassley reported extensive information to the FBI and Justice Department inspector general that Thibault had expressed political bias in social media posts and interfered in politically sensitive investigations, including one into Hunter Biden's overseas business dealings.

Grassley said he was encouraged by the move but that it was too early to tell yet whether Wray was serious about addressing a growing body of evidence of political bias inside the bureau's ranks.

"Maybe he's going in the right direction," Grassley said in a wide-ranging interview with the John Solomon Reports podcast. "But it's not enough evidence to give you a concrete answer, that he's not concerned or that he's concerned enough about what I have exposed."

Grassley first released information about Thibault and other officials in a letter last week to Wray that revealed FBI officials closed down one inquiry into President Biden's son by falsely casting evidence of wrongdoing as "disinformation" and opened other inquiries without adequate evidence.

On Thursday, the seven-term senator provided Just the News more details about what concerned him about the Thibault allegations, including that one of the investigations that was opened on thin evidence involved former President Donald Trump.

"We have evidence that there was a special agent in charge by the name of Thibault that the FBI should have known had political bias, because you could see it in his social media writings that he did over a long period of time," Grassley explained. "And he's the one that opened an investigation of Trump based upon fuzzy liberal reporting, and maybe even a little bit of fuzzy information from one left-wing nonprofit. ...

"The same person, when there was credible information of criminality on Hunter Biden, he shut that investigation down and classified it more or less as disinformation."

The FBI press office did not respond Thursday evening to a request for comment on behalf of Thibault.

But during questioning at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing earlier in the day, Wray appeared to confirm part of Grassley's account by saying that Thibault had been the assistant special agent in charge at the Washington D.C. field office, a prestigious supervisory job, "until recently."

He declined to be more specific, saying he wanted to be careful not to influence ongoing personnel or investigative proceedings. But Wray acknowledged the specificity and nature of the allegations in Grassley's letter had struck an unsettling chord.

"I should say that when I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you're talking about, I found it deeply troubling," Wray told Louisiana Republican Sen. John Kennedy.

Senate investigators told Just the News on Thursday that they have seen — and forwarded to the DOJ's internal watchdog — social media posts from Thibault showing disdain for Trump and other conservatives, including one in which he liked a newspaper article with the headline "William Barr has gone rogue" and another retweeting a post from the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project that called the 45th president "a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man."

Grassley said some in the mainstream media and liberal political circles have wrongly tried to dismiss his letter as an effort to score points against the Biden family. His deepest concern as a four-decade champion of federal whistleblowers, he said, was that there is credible, extensive evidence that some FBI agents were putting their thumb on the investigative scale in ways that appear to hurt politicians they disliked and protect those they supported.

"A lot of people think that I'm involved with the FBI only because of the Hunter Biden investigation I'm doing," Grassley told Just the News. "And of course, I'm very much interested in that, and the national security implications, for sure. But today's hearing and other things I've been involved in are trying to correct flaws at the FBI, and mostly making sure that there isn't any political bias. And we got plenty of information, not just recently, but over a long period of time about political interference in the FBI."

Grassley said the evidence his team has gathered pointing to politicization of the bureau predates the opening of the discredited Russia collusion probe. The problems began "even before starting an investigation against Trump, and ending an investigation against Hunter Biden, over a long period of time," he said. "We have the Clinton emails, we have Russiagate, we have the Mueller investigations, we have the fact that [former Deputy Director] McCabe wasn't fired."

McCabe originally was fired for lying in an internal investigation, but then his pension was restored.

"We have the Nasser [Olympic sex abuse] investigations that I've been talking about recently, where FBI agents weren't prosecuted for what they were doing wrong," Grassley continued.

Wray needs to launch "a concrete program for eliminating any political bias within the organization," Grassley said, explaining that "the reason he should be interested in it is because the public ought to have great confidence in the FBI, and their credibility is at stake."

Grassley said he took Thibault's transfer as a small step by Wray in the right direction.

Wray "did move him out of that position," he acknowledged. "And I don't know where he's assigned now. He's still in the FBI, is still being paid by the FBI. But I don't think he's in a position to make any political determinations about investigations."

Wray succeeded controversial Director James Comey, who was fired in 2017 for improperly usurping the DOJ's powers during the Hillary Clinton email scandal, when he unilaterially decided not to allow any prosecutions. Though chosen by Trump, Wray has lost confidence among congressional Republicans because so many FBI agents who were found to have committed professional or criminal offenses like lying, sexual harassment or evidence tampering escaped serious punishment, often by retiring.

Former Georgia Rep. Doug Collins told the "Just the News, Not Noise" television show on Thursday night that Wray's record of administering discipline has been slow, uneven and disappointing and that the director will be remembered as a director for whom "the job's too big."

"I think [Wray's tenure] is going to go down as one that's a very troubled time," Collins said. "It is going to be one of lack of decision, and indecisions which have caused the FBI to be questioned and its motives questioned."

As for Thibault's reported transfer by Wray, Collins said: "I'm glad he moved him, but why didn't he fire them? Where is the accountability?"

The name Thibault is familiar to me in connection with the State Department, I believe going back many years to some famous historic cases (need to verify some details before I add a more specific recollection on that). There are also a number of Thibaults prominent in the intelligence community, both in FBI and CIA. Often involved in Middle Eastern and/or counterintelligence matters. Some recent examples:

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https://waccharleston.org/meetinginfo.php?id=29&ts=1492387970

Al Thibault, WACC program chair, will focus on Saudi Arabia. He headed the Political Section of the U.S. Embassy in Saudi Arabia where he was later deputy Ambassador and U.S. Charge d’Affaires. He continues to follow Saudi affairs closely.
* * *

https://tn.usembassy.gov/acting-deputy-chief-of-mission-erica-thibault/

Erica Thibault assumed responsibilities as the Acting Deputy Chief of Mission (A/DCM) at the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia on April 09, 2022. Ms. Thibault arrived in Tunisia in August 2018 and previously served as the Public Affairs Officer at the Libya External Office and the U.S. Embassy in Tunisia.

During the course of her 20 years with the U.S. Department of State, Ms. Thibault has also served in Morocco, The Bahamas, Guatemala and Mexico. Her assignments in Washington, D.C. include the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration overseeing humanitarian assistance and the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs’ Office of Iranian Affairs.

Ms. Thibault graduated from Occidental College with a BA in Diplomacy and World Affairs and holds a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. Ms. Thibault is the recipient of multiple Superior and Meritorious Honor Awards for distinguished service. She speaks Arabic, French and Spanish.

Ms. Thibault and her husband Adam, who also serves with the U.S. Department of State, are the proud parents of two active and inquisitive sons.

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https://art.state.gov/personnel/sarah_thibault/

Art in Embassies: U.S. Department of State

Sarah Thibault is a painter living and working in San Francisco. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally.

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https://innovationla.neworleansbio.com/speakers/robert-thibault/

Bob has been with the FBI for over 27 years. As the Counterintelligence (CI) Program Coordinator and Squad Supervisor, he leads a team of ten Agents and four analysts who detect, investigate and mitigate foreign intelligence threats in Louisiana. He spent his first 13 years in Baton Rouge and conducted a variety of white collar crime, violent crime and national security investigations. In 1997, he received a citation from CIA Director George Tenet for his accomplishments in national security matters. In 2003, he was promoted to a Supervisory Instructor position at the FBI Academy, where he developed and led courses to Agents and Supervisors newly assigned to CI. He also presented lectures on the FBI National CI Strategy to other US Intelligence Community audiences. In 2006, Bob volunteered to return to Louisiana and rejoined the CI Squad. He was the Case Agent for the investigation and prosecutions of four members of a Chinese espionage network based in New Orleans. He received the FBI Director’s Award for his efforts. Bob has also served as the CI Program’s outreach leader, conducting extensive CI awareness liaison and training with the private sector. Bob obtained his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Florida.
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https://www.pexis.com/darryl.html

Darryl Thibault is a 20+ year veteran of the Clandestine Service of the Central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) and a member of the Washington D.C. Bar. He holds a BA
degree in Psychology and Russian from the University of California and a Juris
Doctor degree from the Washington Law Center (American University, Washington
D. C.). Mr. Thibault is the former Chairman (1994) of the San Diego Chapter of the
American Society for Industrial Security. He is also the former President of the San
Diego Chapter of AFIO (Association for Intelligence Officers), a world-wide
organization of former intelligence officers.

Mr. Thibault has testified on numerous occasions as an Expert Court Witness in the
security area and holds a California Private Investigator’s License. He is a member of
numerous professional organizations including the American Society for Industrial
Security, the California Association of Licensed Investigators, the World Association of
Detectives and the National Association of Chiefs of Police.

Mr. Thibault also taught graduate courses in Information Security Management and
Legal and Ethical Issues in Management at Webster University and has served as an
advisor to the California Office of Homeland Defense.

For the past 15 years, Mr. Thibault has been the Managing Director of Pexis
Corporation (dba Pexis Investigations and Pexis Security) providing security and
investigative services world-wide as well as armed executive protection and security
guard operations in the Southern California area. Clients range from government
agencies and financial institutions to large nightclubs, biotechnology companies,
Fortune 500 companies, law firms and private individuals.

* * *

Wray IS “deeply troubling” and corrupt, incompetent and an “existential threat” to America.

Misc stuff:

Hoover didn’t want to publicly acknowledge the Mafia so as the keep his agents from getting involved, thus making them vulnerable to large bribes for them protecting it.

The Mafia didn’t want the FBI to go after them which is why they didn’t deal in narcotics with one or two exceptions. In one weird, more modern case, the NY mob put out a “hit” on the son of a Mafia higher up but the kid stayed one step ahead of them by fleeing back and forth between various states.

Finally the hit was called off on the condition that he be forced to get treatment.

* I worked privately with a congressman’s investigator whom was investigating communist infiltration and control of the DC Washington Teachers Union. He was one of the IRS agents who nailed Al Capone on income tax evasion, the only charge and conviction he ever went to jail on.

* As I have mentioned before, I worked for or knew the best of the Cold War counterspy Bureau agents and CIs. They were brave, determined and honorable men (and women). And dampened good at their trade.

* One of my professors was the FBI agent who received the first call from George Daesch, the German saboteur, who landed from a sub with others in NY/NJ and later Florida during WW2. Great man and teacher. His brother was also an FBI agent, as was one of my other professors who taught Criminal Law/Evidence and Procedure. Smart as a whip.

* Worked with another agent and local law enforcement officials to track down and arrest a self-proclaimed interstate drug dealer. Got the bastard.

The FBI did a good job of helping to round-up Nazi espionage and sabotage rings in Latin America. You can see a sanitized version in the movie, “The FBI Story” starring James Stewart, himself a decorated Ww2 hero and one B52 bombing raid in Vietnam.

The Democrats, aided by the Communists within it in Congress and in their fronts, aided by such turncoat as Sen. Frank Church and Ted Kennedy, were directly responsible for the beginning of the decline of the FBI by appointing weak or incompetent directors when they controlled Congress from Carter to Obama and now Biden.

There are still good men and women in the Bureau and some are now the “new whistleblowers” who will bring down the traitorous and incompetent regimes of Hillary, Obama and the braindamaged Biden Criminal Family.

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