The former FBI official Timothy Thibault, who has faced many whistleblower allegations, replied Tuesday to media reports that he left the bureau, saying in a statement through his legal counsel that he “voluntarily retired” from his job and denying some allegations that were made against him.
Thibault, who was offered pro bono assistance from Morrison & Foerster LLP, said through his lawyer that his last day with the FBI was on Friday, as was reported by various sources. However, he clarified that he “was not fired, not forced to retire, and not asked to retire.”
Thibault, who was previously employed as assistant Special Agent in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office, said that he “informed his supervisors about a month ago that he intended to retire.”
His departure from the FBI occurs in a year in which Thibault is under investigation in the Office of Special Counsel for the possibility of a Hatch Act violation after he has been accused of showing an anti-Trump political bias, which included the anti-Trump bias on his social media accounts, and he has faced numerous whistleblower charges.
Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who is the top Republican in the Senate Judiciary Committee, has brought the accusations of political bias to the light in May.
Grassley pointed out that Thibault utilized Twitter one time to retweet a posting by the Never Trump Lincoln Project that said, “Donald Trump is a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.” In another instance, Thibault allegedly responded in tweets directed at Catholic pastor Fr. Frank Pavone and Trump for them to “focus on the pedophiles” after Pavone had criticized impeaching Trump and extolled the former president's pro-life policy.
The Washington Examiner in May, in addition to being thorough, described several instances of bias in the political arena, allegedly from the Twitter account of Thibault, and also noted that the Twitter account was quickly made private and blocked the outlet following the allegations of bias.
Thibault's legal document stated that the fact that he is “fully cooperating” with the Hatch Act investigation and “expects to be fully exonerated.”
In July, Grassley wrote an open letter to the FBI as well as the Justice Department, demanding documentation related to the FBI's handling of information regarding Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden's troubled son.
The letter referred to Thibault and noted that whistleblowers had claimed “verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation” within the FBI and, at one point an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed” by Thibault specifically.
Thibault and others “subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future,” whistleblowers said in Grassley's letter.
Thibault's legal counsel didn't directly address the allegations of Grassley's whistleblower, however he did state that Thibault “did not supervise the investigation of Hunter Biden” and added that Thibault “was not involved in any decisions related to any laptop that may be at issue in that investigation, and he did not seek to close the investigation.”
Grassley also stated the same month that whistleblowers said Thibault “disregarded agency guidelines requiring substantial factual predication to trigger investigations, while declining to move forward with other investigations despite proper predication.”
The whistleblowers, as per Grassley, said Thibault along with others “didn't always adhere to agency policies in their supervision of various election-related matters, including campaign finance investigations across multiple presidential election cycles.”
The legal counsel for Thibault wrote, “There have also been allegations that Mr. Thibault took certain actions in investigations for partisan political reasons,” noting that Thibault “welcomes any investigation of these false allegations, regardless of his retirement.”
Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), the top Republican in the House Judiciary Committee, also was informed by a whistleblower of Thibault, which was published in Breitbart News in July.
The whistleblower claimed, according to Jordan’s report, that Thibault “pressured agents” to categorize the cases as “domestic violent extremism” in an attempt to boost the number of cases, which could reinforce a narrative that is propagated through the Biden administration that said domestic violence represents the nation's “greatest threat.”
Thibault's legal counsel didn't directly address this issue in the statement on Tuesday.
Grassley admitted in an interview with Fox News that FBI Director Christopher Wray had informed him that Thibault was removed from the “decision-making” about which investigations the FBI should investigate.
