The former FBI agent who resigned over claims of prejudice in the agency’s handling of the Hunter Biden laptop affair is certain that an inquiry would show his actions were not driven by politics.
In a statement, the legal team defending former agent Timothy Thibault, Morrison & Foerster LLP, mentions that the Office of the Special Counsel is reportedly looking into claims that their client’s social media postings violated the Hatch Act.
One of the 13 assistant special agents tasked with looking into the Hunter laptop scandal was Thibault; in fact, he served as the case’s special agent in charge.
Following revelations from agency informants about an alleged pattern of political prejudice from many high-ranking employees, FBI Director Christopher Wray dismissed him from his supervisory position earlier this month.
After leaving his position on Friday, Thibault was reportedly led out of the premises.
Donald Trump argued that the escorted leave is more evidence of irregularities with Thibault’s management of the investigation into the contents of Hunter’s laptop, implying that it was a “forced retirement” scenario.
‘People that’retire’ from the FBI aren’t perp walked out of the Headquarters Building on a hot, beautiful day in August, after being shouted at and mocked by his supervisors,’ the former president said on Wednesday morning in a post to Truth Social.
Like the laptop, he said, “this was the FIRING FROM HELL!”
However, according to Thibault’s representation, following the customary procedure of returning his security badge, he allegedly walked through the FBI field office with two longtime agent friends before “walking out of the building alone.”
Claims to the contrary are untrue, the company said in a statement on its client’s behalf.
The company also asserts that he was neither dismissed, coerced, or given the option of retiring.
According to Thibault’s legal counsel, once the investigation by the special counsel is over, he will be “totally exonerated” and is working with it.
His alleged violations of the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from participating in political activity or openly expressing political opinions or biases, are the subject of the investigation.
According to Morrison & Foerster LLP, Thibault is “adamant” that any review would find that his leadership, decision-making, and oversight were unaffected by any political affiliation or prejudice.
They continued, “He is confident that all of his choices were in line with the FBI’s highest standards for ethics and integrity.”
The company further asserts that Thibault “did not supervise the investigation of Hunter Biden.”
Morrison stated that “Mr. Thibault was not involved in any decisions related to any laptop that may have been the subject of that investigation, and he did not seek to close the investigation.”
The Baltimore Field Office of the FBI is currently in charge of the case.
The company emphasised that Thibault had no part in the FBI raid on Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in early August.
Thibault was singled out by Senate Judiciary ranking member Chuck Grassley this summer in addition to the whistleblower complaints, the removal from his supervisory position, and his subsequent retirement.
In a letter dated July 18, Senator Grassley pleaded with Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland to investigate claims that political bias was influencing agency operations.
Because “the FBI answers to Congress and the American people,” Grassley wrote to Wray, “As you are aware, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Tim Thibault is not the only politically biassed FBI agent at the Washington Field Office.”
Following a barrage of negative remarks about the FBI’s handling of the Hunter investigation, Thibault announced his resignation.
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican, claimed last week in a letter to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz that the bureau purposefully delayed the investigation and instructed agents not to examine the laptop.
My office recently received information about the apparent corruption within the FBI, Johnson said.
Republican senators DEMAND Facebook turn over communications with the FBI regarding burying the Hunter Biden laptop scandal.
Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, two senatorial Republicans, have sent a letter to Facebook demanding that they turn over any correspondence they may have had with the FBI and the DOJ regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop and business dealings.
In the letter to Mark Zuckerberg, it is also asked for the names of FBI and DOJ agents who informed the social media giant that a document dump before the 2020 election was “Russian disinformation.”
According to reports, Facebook was compelled by that warning to censor and remove the New York Post’s reports about the laptop.
The American people deserve to know whether the FBI used Facebook as part of their alleged scheme to discredit information about Hunter Biden, Johnson and Grassley write.
Grassley informed Iowa Republicans on Sunday that he would keep looking into Hunter Biden and that he wanted to expose any “political bias” within the FBI.
If so, they continued, “Congress and the American people require clarity regarding the extent to which the FBI communicated with Facebook during the 2020 election regarding Hunter Biden-related information.”
Johnson wrote to Horowitz, “These whistleblowers claimed that after the FBI took the Hunter Biden laptop from the Wilmington, Delaware computer store, local FBI leadership told employees, “You will not look at that Hunter Biden laptop” and that the FBI is “not going to change the outcome of the election again.”
Johnson responded, saying, “While I understand your reluctance to look into a matter that might be connected to an ongoing investigation, it is clear to me based on numerous credible whistleblower disclosures that the FBI cannot be trusted with the handling of Hunter Biden’s laptop.”
I hope you realise that it will be more difficult for you to find the truth and hold people accountable for wrongdoing the longer your office waits to look into the FBI’s actions.
In order to avoid interfering with the Department of Justice’s investigation into Hunter’s tax affairs, Horowitz informed Johnson in February 2021 that the OIG would not look into how the FBI handled the laptop.
In a letter to Wray and Garland, Senator Grassley asserted that Thibault ordered the closure of “an avenue of derogatory Hunter Biden reporting” in October 2020, one month before the election.
According to that whistleblower, there was proof that some of the details were accurate when Thibault shut down the investigation.
Allegations made to Grassley’s office “appears to indicate that there was a scheme among certain FBI officials to undermine negative information pertaining to Hunter Biden by falsely claiming it was disinformation,” the senator wrote.
In testimony earlier this month, FBI Director Christopher Wray said he was “deeply troubled” by claims that the agency handled the laptop improperly.
In the meantime, sources told CNN that the Department of Justice investigation in Delaware has stepped up recently as it considers whether to file charges for tax offences or making false statements about buying a gun.
Given his well-known struggles with drug addiction at the time, Hunter would not have been allowed to purchase a gun.
He admitted that he was under investigation for tax issues after the 2020 election, but he maintained his innocence.