Congress has a constitutional responsibility to ensure that the executive branch executes the law and uses taxpayer money appropriated to it in accordance with congressional intent.
In furtherance of that constitutional responsibility, Congress has an obligation to investigate the executive branch for fraud, waste, abuse and gross mismanagement.
I take these constitutional responsibilities very seriously.
From time to time, I receive information that requires me to ask questions of the executive branch in an effort to better understand whether any wrongdoing has occurred.
And if so, what remedial actions will be employed to cure the damage done.
And that’s what brings me to focus on Assistant Special Agent in Charge, Timothy Thibault at the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Last week, while I was meeting with my constituents in Iowa, I sent a letter to the Justice Department and FBI. I also sent a letter to the department’s Inspector General.
In those letters, I provided evidence of extreme left-wing bias shown by Thibault.
He’s a powerful agent within the FBI.
He can open and close federal public corruption investigations.
And he’s a shining example of what’s wrong at the FBI.
Andrew McCarthy wrote about him last week and wondered what the heck has happened to the FBI.
This FBI agent’s left-wing political bias was exposed by his LinkedIn and Twitter account.
There, he posted highly partisan material relating to his superiors, matters under the FBI’s purview and matters under his purview.
His LinkedIn network includes current and former FBI personnel.
The general public is able to review his social media content, which includes his political views, biases and objections.
Thibault, under the title Assistant Special Agent in Charge, directly posted a partisan article related to the Michael Flynn case to his LinkedIn account.
The article was a September 3, 2020, opinion piece from the Washington Post titled, “Why the Michael Flynn case still matters,” which was about “the Trump administration’s abuses of the justice system.”
He also liked other politically charged articles relating to then-President Trump and his superior, then-Attorney General Barr.
Thibault’s public political associations don’t end there.
According to his Twitter feed, which is also under his name, he mocked the election of Senator Tuberville and Mississippi at the same time.
He said, “Thank God for Mississippi – state motto of Alabama.”
When Rep. Liz Cheney tweeted “Dick Cheney says WEAR A MASK,” Thibault replied, “Your dad was a disgrace.”
He recently tweeted “Can we give Kentucky to the Russian Federation?”
In response to a Catholic priest’s tweet critical of abortion, he tweeted an anti-Catholic slur to both the Catholic priest and then-President Trump: “Focus on the pedophiles.”
There are more examples, but you get the picture.
After my letters were made public, he reportedly set his tweets to protected mode and deleted his LinkedIn profile.
His social media activity likely violated several federal regulations and department guidelines designed to prevent political bias from infecting FBI matters.
Such restrictions on political activity are heightened for senior FBI officials like Thibault because of the risk of improper influence on investigative matters.
If he projects this type of political sentiment in public using his name and title, there’s no telling what he’s doing within the privacy of his office and in front of subordinates.
The fact that this FBI agent has the power to open and close investigations into political figures, Republican and Democrat, is cause for serious concern.
His actions present a grave risk of political infection and bias in his official decision-making process.
What have the Justice Department and FBI done to oversee his work behavior?
How many investigations have been infected by his political bias?
I fear that for many years he’s been able to do whatever he’s wanted to do.
Accordingly, such conduct unquestionably undermines both the Justice Department and FBI because, at minimum, it creates the perception of unequal application of the law.
At the maximum, his political bias has materially infected investigative matters he’s been a part of.
This is why the American people have lost confidence in the Justice Department and FBI to do the job they’re supposed to do.
Political considerations have infected them. And the cost is a loss of faith in the very institutions that depend on the American people’s trust for their credibility.
My press release last week listed a phone number and email address for Justice Department and FBI whistleblowers to contact my office.
Since then, I’ve had whistleblowers reach out to me about Thibault and others. I’ll have more to say about that in the coming weeks.
I urge anyone that’s willing to speak to government waste, fraud, abuse and gross mismanagement to contact me.
And I strongly urge the Justice Department and FBI to clean house without hesitation.
Transparency brings accountability and my future investigative actions in this space will do exactly that. Stay tuned.
