Posted on 08/11/2022 6:08:32 AM PDT by Red Badger
Prior to the FBI's raid Monday on former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, a string of whistleblower reports alleged that senior officials at the FBI exhibited a pattern of bias in their handling of politically sensitive investigations and also reclassified cases without justification to substantiate the White House's public narratives on crime and extremism.
Beginning in late May, Iowa Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley called attention to then-Washington Field Office Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault over political bias concerns. Thibault expressed support for several "highly partisan" opinion articles on LinkedIn and made a series of politically charged social media posts, according to Grassley, who referred Thibault to the Office of Special Counsel to address the federal agent's potential violations of the Hatch Act, which bars government officials from partisan political activity.
Concerns surrounding Thibault escalated in July, as whistleblowers came forward claiming Thibault's partisan persuasion directly impacted his work at the bureau. While seeking approval from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland to open an investigation into Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, Thibault withheld from them that his predicating evidence was based in "substantial part" on information from a "left-aligned organization," according to Grassley's office.
In a separate instance, whistleblowers claim Thibault worked to falsely discredit evidence against President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and prevent the bureau from investigating him.
"Whistleblowers have told my office that the FBI maintains many sources that have provided extensive information on Hunter Biden," Grassley said in August. "That information allegedly involves potential criminal activity such as money laundering. According to allegations, the underlying information was verified and verifiable. However, instead of green-lighting investigative activity, the FBI shut it down."
Grassley also pointed to Robert Pilger of the Election Crimes Branch, who he alleges was of vital aid to Thibault in his efforts to open the investigation into Trump. Former Principal Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, the Iowa Republican noted, testified that "Pilger's conduct frustrated the department's ability to properly operate the Election Crimes Branch."
Thibault, Grassley confirmed, was reassigned to an unspecified posting prior to the bureau securing a warrant to raid Trump's estate. Sources briefed on the raid confirmed to Just the News that the agents came from the Washington Field Office, in which Thibault was serving until just days prior.
In late July, whistleblower reports emerged that bureau supervisors were pressuring agents to reclassify cases under the label of "domestic violent extremism" (DVE) without substantive justification in order to support White House narratives.
House Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Wednesday outlined the issue in a letter to former Assistant Director of the FBI Counterterrorism Division and Executive Assistant Director of the National Security Branch Jill Sanborn seeking her testimony.
Citing remarks from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, the pair noted that the Biden administration has ranked domestic violent extremism as the "greatest threat" to the United States. Whistleblower claims allege the FBI's top brass has worked to pad the number of DVE cases to support that claim.
"Whistleblower disclosures made by multiple FBI employees from different field offices suggest that FBI agents are bolstering the number of cases of DVEs to satisfy their supervisors," Jordan and Johnson wrote. "For example, one whistleblower explained that because agents are not finding enough DVE cases, they are encouraged and incentivized to reclassify cases as DVE cases even though there is minimal, circumstantial evidence to support the reclassification.
One of the senior officials allegedly applying improper pressure to manipulate data to support ideologically predetermined conclusions, the lawmakers notified Sanborn, was Sanborn herself.
"Another whistleblower stated that a field office Counterterrorism Assistant Special Agent in Charge and the FBI's then Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division pressured agents to move cases into the DVE category to hit self-created performance metrics," they wrote.
Sanborn is no longer with the FBI and is now an employee of Roku, Inc.
The FBI press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this article.
Grassley also announced that “Water is Wet”
Democrats are always Democrats first.
Being an honest FBI agent is way down on their list….if it’s even there at all.
Anyone watching knows what the leftists would say and do if hunter biden was a republican
I am requesting some help from fellow Freepers.
Who here knows if it is standard procedure for the FBI to put agents into the homes of ex-Presidents and/or individuals likely to run for POTUS to gather intelligence?
Isn’t that political spying? Is that normal?
Normal for Dems...........................
This really doesn’t mean anything anymore. We’re a lawless, fascist banana republic now. DAAAAAAY OHHHH! Come Mr. Tally man, tally me mail in ballots....
No it is not normal. It is over the top illegal.
It only matters if Nixon did it.
That's the sign of a police state.
DOJ and FBI are corrupt to the core.
So what?
It’s all so frustrating. FBI is corrupt. 87,000 new IRS agents and the libs in the blue part of Ohio say: “Good! Maybe now I can get a person on the line when I call the IRS”. Vote fraud. Persecution of a former president.
Nothing is done about it. Nothing! The public is full of retards that are so stupid, I’m amazed they remember to breathe. The left is so corrupt and so evil, I can’t adequately express my hate for them. And Republican politicians are as useful as tits on a bull.
Isn’t that political spying? Absolutely
Is that normal? Depends on who the ex-President or candidate is.
BTTT
The damage has been done over many years. I lack confidence in most major institutions in America. That includes all of executive branch, much of the judiciary, the military leadership, most of Congress including Democrats and Republicans, corporate healthcare, pharmaceuticals, big banks, the Federal Reserve, most of education, nearly every major corporation and the vast majority of the media.
The lack of confidence in government is the most important among these. It is government that protects our freedoms. It is government that has the power to send us to the gulag. It is the government that has a significant control over our economic well being; not so much from a positive perspective, but rather the damage it inflicts.
I do have confidence in our form of government and our constitution. We need to completely downsize government to make it a size that is manageable. We need to completely eliminate the FBI and paramilitary law enforcement in federal agencies. We need to be fiscally responsible. That means massive cuts in spending. Fortunately that goes along with downsizing government. We need to pay down the debt. We need massive cuts in regulations. We need an entirely new tax code that does not require businesses and individuals to file income tax returns. The IRS needs to be abolished, not expanded with armed agents. Education and education dollars need to be put into the hands of parents. The federal government needs to be completely out of the education and all levels of government need to be out of the student loan business. That’s my short list. Make the DMV Appalachia. When the richest counties in America, those that surround DC, are the poorest in America we will have succeeded. That is the metric.
The FBI is a cesspool of filthy cops, it must be dissolved and rebuilt or something else put in it’s place.
A sewer by any other name would stink as bad......................
Grassley will grill the FBI! …with brats, burgers, chips, and beer in his backyard chalet in DC.
They set up Nixon as well. Mark Felt (Deep Throat) was a good teacher for modern day management. The probably have a Mark Felt Leadership and Media Exploitation Course at the FBI Academy.
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