On Friday (Aug. 26), FBI agent Thibault Thibault resigned after being accused of political bias in handling the Hunter Biden laptop investigation.
Media reports reported that FBI agent Timothy Thibault no longer works for the bureau. On Friday, Tebow was escorted out of the FBI office building by two or three people who looked like FBI "headquarters," according to people familiar with the matter.
Who is Thibault?
Timothy Thibault is the "Assistant Special Agent in Charge" of the FBI's Washington Field Office in charge of the criminal division.
As the FBI's second largest field office, the Washington field office has a wide range of professionals engaged in multifaceted investigations, data collection and analysis, and intelligence sharing to promote and support a wide range of local, national, and international professionals.
Tebow's legal counsel said in a statement that he was "eligible to retire" and informed his supervisor about a month ago that he intended to retire.
Thibault was "not fired, not forced to retire, and not required to retire," the statement said.
His legal team said Thibault had been "committed to protecting the American people and upholding the U.S. Constitution in a nonpartisan manner" for more than three decades.
Thibault caught the public's attention because of his previous investigation into the Hunter Biden laptop incident. The FBI confiscated the laptop in 2019 ahead of the 2020 election.
On Thursday (Aug. 25), Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, told well-known U.S. podcast Joe Rogan that the FBI contacted his company ahead of the 2020 presidential election to warn them of content that could cause polarization.
After the FBI issued a warning, Facebook restricted news coverage with the New York Post about Hunter Biden and his laptop.
In early August, FBI Director Christopher Wray removed Mr. Tebow from that oversight role after F.B.I. whistleblowers accused Mr. Tebeau of political bias.
Before the raid on Trump's estate, whistleblowers revealed several incidents of alleged political bias, the most prominent of which was the allegations against Thibault.
Why was Thibaugh charged?
The controversy over Thibault began in May 2022.
On May 31, Senator Chuck Grassley, Republican of Iowa, wrote to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland accusing Thibaud of violating "several federal regulations" and guidelines to prevent political bias from affecting FBI affairs.
On July 25, Grassley wrote to Ray and Garland, writing: "According to the allegations, verified and verifiable derogatory information about Hunter Biden has been falsely labeled. ”
Last week, he called Thibault "highly partisan" on Fox News, referring to his alleged move to suppress social media coverage of Hunter Biden.
On July 27, U.S. online media outlet Brightbard News said Rep. Jim Jordan, Republican of Ohio, said whistleblowers told him that Thibault and other FBI personnel "are pressuring agents to reclassify their cases as 'domestic violence extremism,' even if they don't meet the criteria for such classification."
At an August 4 hearing on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Senator John Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, asked Ray if he was aware of the large number of posts Tebeau allegedly posted on social media critical of the Trump administration.
Ray said he saw "similar descriptions." Ray added that when he read the letter describing Tebow's alleged social media posts, he found it "deeply disturbing."
Thibault once took to social media to like a Washington Post article titled "William Barr Has Become a Rogue" and tweeted to Rep. Liz Cheney that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was a "disgrace."
Thibault also retweeted a post on his Lincoln Project account, saying that "Donald Trump is a man of psychological breakdown, pain, and extreme unhappiness." ”
On Aug. 25, Republican Senator Ron Johnson wrote to Attorney General Of Justice Inspector Michael Horowitz accusing him of politically motivated "corruption" within the bureau.
Johnson, who said he heard from the whistleblower, wrote: "Recently, my office heard from individuals who knew about the FBI's apparent corruption. ”
"After the FBI obtained Hunter Biden's laptop from a computer store in Wilmington, Delaware, the whistleblowers said local FBI leadership told employees, 'You don't look at Hunter Biden's laptop,' and that the FBI 'will not change the election results again.'"
"While I understand your hesitation in investigating things that may be related to an ongoing investigation, based on a large number of reliable whistleblower disclosures, it is clear to me that the FBI cannot be trusted in handling Hunter Biden's laptop."
Last week, Senator Grassley told Fox News that Thibault launched an investigation into former President Trump "based on vague newspaper reports."
Grassley quoted whistleblowers as saying Tebow was accused of ordering the suppression of "more derogatory avenues for Hunter Biden's reporting" in October 2020.
The senator said Thibault allegedly violated FBI guidelines and did not give a valid reason to end the matter.
Grassley said Thibault was one of several FBI officials accused of trying to use inappropriate markings to block Hunter Biden's whistleblowing channels.
In his comments to Time magazine, Grassley said: "There should be no political bias in the FBI. We need accountability, that's why Congress has to keep investigating, and the inspector general has to conduct a full investigation as I asked," Grassley continued.
After the FBI's unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago, Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, president of the House Republican Conference, renewed his call on Republicans to investigate "corrupt (federal) institutions."
In fact, Stefanick said in a statement, the same agencies involved in the Trump raid "have just been found to be illegally interfering in the 2020 presidential campaign when they instructed social media companies to suppress Hunter Biden's laptop from hell." ”
Hunter Biden's computer
Hunter Biden, 52, is under investigation into business activities by the U.S. Department of Justice.
CNN reported in March that the investigation began "back in 2018" and involved a number of financial and business transactions abroad involving Hunter Biden dating back to the Obama administration, when his father, Joe Biden, was vice president.
In 2020, Hunter Biden issued a statement strongly denying any tax misconduct on the part of him and saying he believed the review would show that he had dealt with the issues "legitimately and appropriately."
In October 2020, the New York Post was the first to expose a large number of sensitive photos and controversial emails on Hunter's computer hard drive, revealing hunter's cooperation with a Ukrainian energy company and a Z-country energy company.
In an email with energy company CEFC China Energy Co, the company's distribution of benefits was discussed. Hunter received a 20 percent stake in the company, and the email suggested that 10 percent of the company's stake should be kept by Hunter to a "big guy."
Fox quoted people familiar with the matter as saying that the "big man" is former US Vice President Joe Biden.
Hunter dropped the laptop in 2019 at a computer repair shop in Delaware.
The computer was left unattended in the repair shop, and the repair shop owner, Isaac, later discovered the disturbing content in the computer and gave the computer's hard drive to the FBI in December 2019.
Rudy Giuliani, the former mayor of New York City, was also given a copy of the hard drive. Giuliani recently handed over these leaking documents to the New York Post.
According to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last week, the FBI suppressed coverage of the matter on social media in the New York Post.
CNN reportedly quoted unnamed sources as saying prosecutors were considering allegations of alleged tax violations and possible misrepresentations when buying guns.
The investigation, led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Wilmington, Delaware, focused on Hunter Biden's financial and business activities abroad when his father was vice president.
CNN reported that while no decision has yet been made on potential charges against Biden, sources say the investigation has intensified in recent months.
Federal investigators have been investigating whether Hunter Biden may have been involved in money laundering, whether he violated U.S. tax laws, and acted as an unregistered foreign lobbying agent while acting as an advisor and investor to foreign interest companies.
The Biden administration has allowed David Weiss, a Federal Prosecutor appointed by Trump, to continue the investigation into the president's son.