The FBI agent who sparked the investigation into former President Donald Trump was reportedly escorted out of the bureau's headquarters on Friday, following allegations of political bias.
Whistleblowers have accused former Washington Field Office Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Thibault of acting with an unprofessional political bias in his handling of cases related to Trump and President Joe Biden's son, Hunter.
According to a report from the Washington Times, they spoke to eyewitnesses who said that "Mr. Tim Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s elevator last Friday escorted by two or three 'headquarters-looking types.'"
The Times, who is Newsguard certified as credible, reports that Thibault was "forced" to abruptly resign from his position. Fox News, which is not certified as credible, has reported that he retired.
In a statement released by his lawyers, Thibault said that he retired and denied acting as a partisan. MEDIA STATEMENT ON BEHALF OF TIMOTHY R. THIBAULT
For Immediate Release⁰[Timothy R. Thibault has retained the pro bono services of Morrison & Foerster LLP.] The following statement may be used, in whole or part, + attributed to Mr. Thibault’s counsel at Morrison & Foerster LLP pic.twitter.com/xpWA6hxguJ
— Catherine Herridge (@CBS_Herridge) August 31, 2022
Just the News reported last week that Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley told them on Thursday that Thibault had been moved to "another unspecified job."
Thibault is accused of withholding the fact that evidence against Trump came from a leftist political organization from FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland — which ultimately led to the raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence on August 8.
The whistleblowers also claimed that Thibault had worked to discredit evidence against Hunter Biden, to halt any investigations into his overseas business dealings.
In May, Sen. Grassley had referred Thibault to the Office of Special Counsel for potential violations of the Hatch Act over politically charged social media activity — including retweeting a post from the anti-Trump Lincoln Project, which referred to the former president as "a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man."
"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 told Just the News in an interview. "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 senator added, "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."
At the beginning of August, FBI Director Wray called the allegations against Thibault "deeply troubling" while speaking at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing.
Editor's Note: Timcast has updated this story to include the statement from Thibault's legal team.
