Sen. Grassley: FBI Whistleblower Investigation Centers on Mystery Hunter Biden Evidence

The FBI whistleblower investigation led by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) involving former bureau agent Timothy Thibault centers on secretive evidence about Hunter Biden that has not yet been made public, the Washington Examiner has learned.

Thibault, the former FBI assistant special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office who left the bureau in late August, shut down a line of inquiry into now-President Joe Biden’s son in October 2020 despite some of the details being known to be true at the time, according to whistleblower allegations provided to Grassley. The senator says the Justice Department and FBI investigation into Hunter may now be hobbled because of it.

Although Grassley’s office wouldn’t be drawn on what this specific whistleblower evidence is, the senator’s office told the Washington Examiner the disclosures were not directly connected with Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop hard drive, nor with the September 2020 report Grassley released with Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) on Hunter’s overseas business dealings, nor with former Hunter business associate Tony Bobulinski, who has recently reemerged in the media spotlight.

The comments from Grassley’s office came the same day it was leaked to multiple outlets that the FBI believes it has collected enough evidence to charge Hunter with crimes related to tax fraud and lying about his drug use when purchasing a firearm. The decision on whether to charge the president’s son rests with Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss.

THIBAULT CALLED TO TESTIFY BY CONGRESSIONAL REPUBLICANS

Grassley revealed in July that whistleblowers told him Thibault had “ordered closed” an “avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting” in October 2020, even though “all of the reporting was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants.”

Thibault’s role in the FBI has come back into the spotlight thanks to an interview Bobulinski gave to Tucker Carlson on Fox News this week. Bobulinski told Carlson he believes Thibault ran interference in his own dealings with the bureau, saying that the agent promised to follow up with his lawyers after his October 2020 meetings with the FBI but that Thibault and the bureau never did.

The FBI declined on Friday to comment to the Washington Examiner on Bobulinski’s allegations.

The Washington Examiner previously reported on the trove of Hunter Biden-linked messages and business documents from Bobulinski, which he said he handed over to the bureau ahead of the 2020 election.

Thibault released a statement in August through his lawyers, who said he “was not fired, not forced to retire, and not asked to retire.”

“There have also been allegations that Mr. Thibault took certain actions in investigations for partisan political reasons,” Thibault’s attorneys said. “Mr. Thibault welcomes any investigation of these false allegations, regardless of his retirement. He firmly believes that any investigation will conclude his supervision, leadership, and decision-making were not impacted by political bias or partisanship of any kind.”

Thibault’s lawyer added: “Mr. Thibault did not supervise the investigation of Hunter Biden. … In particular, Mr. 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 said last month that Thibault’s statement didn’t address “the shutting down of investigative activity and avenues of information relating to Hunter Biden” nor “his actions to try and improperly mark investigative closings so that they couldn’t be opened in the future.”

Thibault also may have run afoul of the Hatch Act related to his 2020 social media posts criticizing then-President Donald Trump and then-Attorney General Bill Barr, according to DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz in August. Thibault’s lawyers said he was cooperating with that investigation.

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FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten also “opened an assessment, which was used by an FBI headquarters team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease,” according to whistleblower allegations made public by Grassley.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said he found these whistleblower allegations “deeply troubling” when asked about them in early August.