Law enforcement officers walk past the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building in Washington on July 21, 2022. (Chung I Ho/The Epoch Times)
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A top Republican lawmaker on Tuesday responded to reports that a high-ranking FBI agent, Timothy Thibault, had resigned from the bureau last week.
Anonymous sources within the FBI told corporate news outlets that Thibault, the FBI Assistant special agent in charge, no longer works for the law enforcement agency. He was walked out of the building on Friday, which is the standard procedure, the reports said.
The Epoch Times has contacted the FBI and Department of Justice for comment. Neither agency issued a public statement about the matter.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), whose letters to the FBI’s leadership repeatedly referenced alleged political bias on behalf of Thibault, said the agent “undermined the work and reputation of the FBI” and cast “a shadow over all the bureau’s work that he was involved in,” according to a statement from his office issued Tuesday morning.
Grassley accused him of “opening an investigation into Trump based on liberal news articles” and “shutting down investigative activity into Hunter Biden that was based on verified information.” The senator previously referenced those allegations against Thibault in letters to the FBI director, citing bureau whistleblower complaints against Thibault and other top leaders.
Neither Thibault nor the FBI has issued responses to Grassley’s specific claims about alleged political bias.
Grassley’s statement promised more congressional investigations into the FBI and called on the DOJ’s inspector general to further look into bias at the bureau.
Thibault was one of 13 assistant special agents in charge at the Washington, D.C., field office. Reports say Thibault was not involved in the FBI raid targeting former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago, although the agency has not confirmed those claims.
Political Bias
The senator signaled that he would continue to press the FBI for any “political bias,” adding that the “effort to revive the FBI’s credibility can’t stop with [Thibault’s] exit.
Previously, Thibault was flagged by Grassley in letters to the agency for previously sharing a Twitter post calling Trump “a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.”
And in other letters, Grassley accused Thibault of potentially violating federal laws and rules established by the FBI. Citing whistleblower claims, Grassley also alleged that there’s evidence Thibault had partisan bias when handling investigations into the Trump campaign and Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden.
“Whistleblowers have reported to me, that although the FBI and Justice Department maintain policies dictating specific standards requiring substantial factual predication to initiate an investigation, Thibault and other Justice Department and FBI employees failed to comply with these requirements,” Grassley wrote, noting that the agent was “referred to the Office of Special Counsel for potential Hatch Act violations.”
Justice Department official Richard Pilger, who has been identified as the director of the Election Crimes Branch within the Justice Department’s Public Integrity Section, was also targeted by Grassley’s letters in recent months. Along with Thibault, Pilger was allegedly “deeply involved in the decisions to open and pursue this investigation” against Trump’s campaign, the senator said.
