Last week U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, citing conversations with whistleblowers, promised the Republicans would delve deep into the left-wing, anti-Trump political bias at the FBI, if voters put them back in charge of the Capitol.
But it seems some are fleeing before Gaetz and Co. get their chance.
The Washington Times reported on Monday that a senior FBI agent at the Washington field office “abruptly resigned after coming under congressional scrutiny for suspected political bias in handling the investigation of Hunter Biden’s laptop computer.”
The agent, Timothy Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge of that office, was “forced” from his job. The Times noted that he was escorted out of the FBI’s office on Friday.
The Times noted that Thibault, a 25-year FBI veteran, had been on leave for more than a month because of public “political statements” he made while supposedly leading the agency’s public corruption unit.
According to the Times, Thibault was on social media “liking” articles from The Washington Post that complained about then-Attorney General Bill Barr not aggressively prosecuting associates of former President Donald Trump.
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Meanwhile, he was overseeing the Hunter Biden laptop case, which became almost as famous for being carried by the media and Big Tech as for its salacious contents.
Thibault also retweeted a post criticizing Trump by the left-wing Lincoln Project.
Thibault, the Times added, “was also known for pushing out unvaccinated agents from the FBI’s election squad whom he suspected to be Trump supporters.”
One of the whistleblowers talking to Republican lawmakers like Rep. Gaetz, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, told the Times that the FBI was pulling the security clearances of conservative employees “in retaliation for their disfavored political speech.”
In a statement about Thibault on Monday, Trump noted, “The fired agent who was just escorted out of the FBI headquarters is the person who got the FBI to do a Raid on a home, Mar-a-Lago, that has ‘stirred’ the World and created anger and hostility toward the FBI and DOJ the likes of which has perhaps never been seen in our Country before.”
Sen. Chuck Grassley, the leading Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, had demanded records about Thibault’s work history earlier this year.
Echoing recent comments by Gaetz, Grassley said Thibault’s exit would not end the probe GOP lawmakers are planning.
Thibault’s “blatant partisanship undermined the work and reputation of the FBI. This type of bias in high-profile investigations casts a shadow over all of the bureau’s work that he was involved in, which ranged from opening an investigation into Trump based on liberal news articles to shutting down investigative activity into Hunter Biden that was based on verified information,” Grassley told the Times.
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“Political bias should have no place at the FBI, and the effort to revive the FBI’s credibility can’t stop with his exit. We need accountability, which is why Congress must continue investigating and the inspector general must fully investigate as I’ve requested,” he added.
The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Free Press.
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