Hunter Biden investigation: Key takeaways from ex-FBI agent Timothy Thibault’s testimony

A former senior FBI official thrust into the spotlight last year after whistleblowers accused him of misconduct defended himself to Congress this month, saying unequivocally he never used his position to advance a political agenda.

Timothy Thibault, former assistant special agent in charge in the FBI’s Washington Field Office, spoke in candid detail to the House Judiciary Committee for hours as he sought to set the record straight on numerous accusations made against him, according to his nearly 300-page testimony obtained by the Washington Examiner.

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Top Republicans on the Senate and House Judiciary Committees brought to light last year whistleblower claims against Thibault, including that he obstructed the Department of Justice’s Hunter Biden case, injected political bias into the department’s inquiry into 2020 alternate electors, pushed to inflate the perception of domestic terrorism, and posted anti-Trump content on social media.

Thibault told committee staff his interview with them was the first he had spoken publicly about the claims, all of which he said were untrue, except for his social media behavior.

“The [claims are] extremely serious, and it makes me look like a corrupt FBI agent,” he said, lamenting that headlines about him last summer seemed to define his 26 years with the bureau.

Thibault spent the bulk of his career investigating high-profile government corruption cases, receiving promotions that led him to oversee a premier public corruption squad, work in counterterrorism, and eventually land in a top role at the Washington Field Office’s criminal division. He emphasized he had “actually opened more cases against Democrats” during his tenure and that two of his investigations resulted in convictions of two Democratic lawmakers, Reps. William Jefferson and Jesse Jackson.

The FBI declined to comment for this story.

Below are some of the top claims against Thibault and his responses to the committee.

Thibault testified that he did not act alone in closing a source in the Hunter Biden case

Citing unnamed whistleblowers, Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) named Thibault in a letter on July 25, 2022, as having ordered closed “an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting” in October 2020. Grassley said Thibault also attempted to permanently close the matter so no one within the FBI could reopen it.

Thibault said during his testimony he did make a decision to close a Hunter Biden-related source file in October of that year, but he emphasized he did not act alone and that he, in general, had little interaction with the Hunter Biden case, which was being run by the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office.

He said he received an unsolicited call in October 2020 from the lead agent on the case, Joe Gordon, who told him Baltimore had no use for a form that had been filed with Thibault’s office. Thibault described the form, called an FD-1023, as a brief “one-pager,” which suggested it may have been different than the multi-page FD-1023 form Grassley would later publish that contained the most damning allegations against the Biden family yet.

Thibault was also unaware of whether his office’s FD-1023 form contained “derogatory” information because it lacked substantive detail and only stated what information “could have been provided. I don’t think it was in the 1023,” he said.

The FBI opens files on its sources before the sources are used on FD-1023 forms. In this case, Thibault ordered an agent to close the source file.

“I deduced from everything [Gordon] said that they already had the information from some other source, some other channel, maybe not a human source but some other channel,” Thibault said. “He also said that that person was politically connected and partisan in his view and he was concerned about the source being on media platforms.”

Gordon indicated the source “could cause problems when you get to prosecution and to open doors for defense attorneys. The last thing I wanted [Washington Field Office] to do was hurt any other office’s case,” Thibault said.

Peter Schweizer, president of the conservative-backed Government Accountability Institute, identified himself as the source in a podcast last week. Schweizer, who has in recent years authored numerous books detailing alleged Biden family corruption, said he was approached by two FBI agents in June 2020 who were seeking information about public corruption and that he was happy to help them at the time.

Thibault’s account corroborated this. Thibault also said two agents on a public corruption unit had vetted the source, who was apparently Schweizer and whose file Thibault would later order closed. One of the agents was Tom Olohan, who later retired from the FBI to work for the conservative Heritage Foundation, and another was an unnamed female agent, according to the testimony.

Thibault said that in addition to Gordon’s call, FBI headquarters also called him with concerns about the source and that agents could discuss them with Thibault in a classified setting with the Foreign Influence Task Force on Oct. 21, 2020, two weeks ahead of the 2020 election. The FITF was at the time in the throes of handling election-related information, including addressing questions from social media companies about the New York Post’s story about Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Thibault asked that the two agents involved in the source vetting be able to attend for “transparency” purposes, but headquarters objected to that, he said.

Thibault said roughly 15 agents and analysts were in the meeting, which was “broader” than just discussions about the source, and that he left confident about closing the source file.

“I had learned from Baltimore that there was risk … and then the information provided by the FITF sort of gave me a whole different perspective,” Thibault said, adding, “I didn’t make a mistake. I’d make the same decision again today based on the facts I had.”

He also emphasized that he did not act alone and only made the decision to close the source file after consulting with Gordon, FITF agents, public corruption agents and supervisors, and Thibault’s own boss.

Thibault noted that, contrary to Grassley’s whistleblower claim, he did not permanently close the source. The Baltimore office could have opened it “the very next day” if it wanted to, he said.

“I think I was accused of closing a source forever. I didn’t understand that,” he said.

Thibault testified that he made good-faith efforts to follow up on Tony Bobulinski.

Tony Bobulinski, Hunter Biden’s former business partner and a key witness to his ventures, interviewed with the FBI on Oct. 23, 2020, a day on which Thibault had taken leave and was not involved in the logistics of the interview, he said.

A report in the New York Post stated Thibault, who Bobulinski and his lawyer were told was their FBI “point man,” called the lawyer after the interview and said he would “soon advise on next steps.”

“But neither Bobulinski nor his lawyer was contacted again. Nor was Bobulinski brought before a Delaware grand jury investigating Hunter,” the New York Post stated, accusing Thibault of hiding “intel.”

The Washington Examiner confirmed in June with a representative for Bobulinski that he had indeed never been brought before a grand jury in the Delaware-based investigation, which the Baltimore Field Office was overseeing.

As for the follow-up issue, Thibault said he had a brief phone conversation with the attorney, Stefan Passantino, and that during the conversation, Passantino laid out “conditions” he had for giving the FBI certain devices of Bobulinski’s.

Thibault told Passantino he needed to speak with FBI lawyers and then followed up with Passantino and spoke with him about what the lawyers told him.

From there, Thibault said he made well-documented efforts to make sure anything Passantino had was turned over to the Baltimore Field Office.

“I took several actions to ensure continuity between WFO and Baltimore on the Bobulinski interview and communication with Mr. Passantino,” he said. “I called and emailed the Baltimore [assistant special agent in charge] to ensure that he and his investigative team knew about all actions WFO took on their behalf concerning Mr. Bobulinski.”

He added of Bobulinski interviewing in Washington, “The whole idea that he came to WFO is they were trying not to disclose that there was an investigation in Baltimore is my belief.”

Thibault testified that he ‘deeply, deeply’ regrets his political social media posts

Grassley’s first mention of Thibault was in a letter in May 2022, when the Iowa Republican exposed several political social media posts by Thibault and warned he may have violated the Hatch Act with them.

Thibault, for instance, used Twitter to share a post from the Lincoln Project that read, “Donald Trump is a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.” In another instance, Thibault allegedly responded in a tweet to Catholic priest Frank Pavone and Trump to “focus on the pedophiles” after Pavone criticized Trump’s impeachment.

The Washington Examiner also thoroughly detailed many examples of political bias from Thibault’s apparent Twitter account. The same account quickly became private and blocked the Washington Examiner after the bias allegations surfaced.

Thibault testified, “I deeply, deeply regret my social media activity became a distraction for the FBI and created appearance issues which resulted in false allegations that my work in the FBI was impacted by political bias or partisanship.”

“I have always taken great care not to let my personal beliefs or political opinions affect my work at the bureau,” he said, adding that the posts gave people a “foothold” for otherwise false allegations against him.

Substack writer Greg Price also uncovered social media posts by Thibault’s girlfriend in which she aggressively defended Thibault and accused whistleblowers of lying about him.

Asked in his testimony if he ever posted from her account, Thibault said, “No, I never used her account.”

“I never collaborated with her on her postings,” he said. “That was never under my control.”

Thibault testified that he was not forced out of the FBI

After Grassley, as well as then-House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jim Jordan (R-OH), raised alarm about the various allegations against Thibault, the Washington Times reported in August 2022 that Thibault had “abruptly resigned” from the FBI and “was forced to leave his post,” generating buzz about the circumstance of his exit.

The outlet also reported that eyewitnesses saw “headquarters-looking types” escorting him as he was leaving an elevator on his last day.

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Thibault, who had worked in government for 30 years, said that he resigned at the end of August voluntarily after making the “personal decision” to do so one month prior. No one asked him to leave, he said.

On reports he was escorted out of his office, he said, “I can’t emphasize how inaccurate that was.”