Republicans have accused a top FBI agent of politicizing the agency after he quit amid claims that he sought to obstruct the investigation into Hunter Biden’s laptop and business transactions. He is also believed to have put pressure on bureau staff to inflate domestic terror statistics.
Whistleblowers claimed in July that Timothy Thibault, the former assistant special agent in charge of the FBI, was one of the agents attempting to persuade FBI employees to increase Domestic Violent Extremism (DVE) case counts in order to meet “performance metrics.” Thibault resigned from his position on Friday in response to Republican accusations of his political bias in relation to the Biden laptop investigation. The publication said that Thibault and other bureau officials were pressuring FBI personnel to categorize cases as involving DVE even though they did not fit the requirements.
According to the FBI, DVE is defined as a person who “seeks to advance political or social aims fully or in part by criminal acts of force or violence without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign authority.” Republican Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan made the claim to Breitbart that Thibault was one of the FBI agents urging others to support DVE cases.
Jordan wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray in July, pleading with him to look into the alleged DVE data stuffing. Wray testified in June 2021 that the bureau had a “very, very aggressive domestic terrorist investigative program.”
Jordan said in the letter that “whistleblower accusations that the FBI is inflating its domestic violent extremist statistics cheapens genuine incidents of violent extremism.” This material further confirms our worries about the politicization of the FBI under your leadership, about which we have written to you on many occasions.
According to a source familiar with the situation who spoke to Fox News on Friday, Thibault was supposedly led out of the FBI headquarters. Republican Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley informed Wray in July that the former agent was reportedly a part of a broad attempt inside the FBI to reject and minimize “bad Hunter Biden material” and call it “disinformation,” according to insiders.
In conjunction with the Hunter Biden investigation, Grassley charged Thibault in July with “improper behavior” after receiving reports from sources that the senator believed Thibault wanted to end the investigation. The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware is still looking into Hunter Biden’s business practices.
