Whistleblower records released this week show that "prolific anti-Trump FBI agent" Timothy Thibault allegedly broke protocol to push for the agency's initial investigations into President Donald Trump and the 2020 election.
The records, released by Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Thursday, show that Thibault allegedly wrote the language for the "Arctic Frost" investigation that eventually became former Special Counsel Jack Smith's case against Trump, reported The Federalist Thursday.
"Thibault took this action despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his ASAC role," a joint press release from Grassley and Johnson stated. They also said the Justice Department and FBI had a "plot to pin Trump."
The records further revealed that Richard Pilger, an official in the Justice Department's Public Integrity Section, reviewed and approved the Arctic Frost investigation, leading the DOJ to move forward with a criminal and grand jury investigation that became the Trump elector case.
Pilger was also included in a report from Grassley, who said he had "undermined the department's election-related efforts."
Thibault, a former FBI assistant special agent in charge (ASAC) was fired on charges of violating the Hatch Act after Grassley exposed his actions in a letter in 2022 to Christopher Wray, who was then the FBI director, and Merrick Garland, then the attorney general.
In the letter, Grassley said Thibault "likely violated several federal regulations and Department guidelines designed to prevent political bias from infecting FBI matters." He also accused Thibault of having "demonstrated a pattern of active public partisanship."
The letter outlined several instances of Thibault's bias against Trump, including that he reposted a Lincoln Project social media post and said that "Donald Trump is a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man."
Grassley mentioned Thibault's emails during his opening statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing for Kash Patel, the nominee for FBI director.
According to the emails released by Grassley and Johnson, Thibault sent "opening language" that turned into the elector case and sent an email to D.C. U.S. Attorney's Office prosecutor John Crabb, telling him that he had "a discussion with the case team, and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject."
And when Trump and others were added as criminal subjects in the case, Thibault responded "Perfect" in another email.
Trump was included in the case based on a document with information on "liberal nonprofit American Oversight," according to whistleblowers' comments to Grassley in late 2022.
They said that Thibault and Pilger had later "removed or watered-down material connected to the aforementioned left-wing entities that existed in previous versions and recommended that a full investigation — not a preliminary investigation — be approved."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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