On 8/4/2022, during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Wray was asked by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., about allegations “highly credible whistleblowers” at the Justice Department and FBI shared with Sen. Chuck Grassley’s office last week. Grassley, in a letter to Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland last week, detailed the allegations and indicated that the whistleblowers said there was “a scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.” The whistleblowers also alleged a “pattern of active public partisanship” at the agencies pertaining to investigations into the Trump campaign and suppression of information on the Hunter Biden probe.
FBI Director Christopher Wray has admitted that whistleblower allegations that FBI agents plied a specially-devised scheme to “undermine derogatory information” on first son Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election as “deeply troubling,” “When I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you’re talking about, I found it deeply troubling,” Wray testified. Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), grilled Wray at a Senate Judiciary Committee oversight hearing about claims leveled against Tim Thibault, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s DC field office, and FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten revealed by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley last month. “Isn’t it true that Mr. Thibault — Agent Thibault and Auten covered up derogatory information about Mr. Hunter Biden while working for the FBI?” Kennedy asked Wray point-blank.
The FBI director responded by saying, ““I want to be very careful not to interfere with ongoing personnel matters… I should say that when I read the letter that describes the kinds of things that you’re talking about, I found it deeply troubling.” Wray pointed out that the actions Kennedy was describing regarding the agents in question were “not representative of the FBI.” “I feel very strongly, and I have communicated consistently since I started as director …” Wray said.
Kennedy also cited to Wray a variety of Thibault’s social media barbs against Republicans. Thibault’s alleged social media activity included a retweet of a Lincoln Project message that called Donald Trump a “psychologically broken, embittered and deeply unhappy man” and tweet saying that he wanted to “give Kentucky to the Russian Federation.” Kennedy cited some of Thibault’s social media messages and asked the FBI director, “Do you know how this looks to the American people?” “I will tell you that what you’re describing is not representative of the FBI … where I see patriots working their tails off with tremendous integrity and objectivity,” Wray said. “You’re killing yourselves with this stuff,” Kennedy responded, adding, “And this investigation needs to be completed on this gentleman and the results need to be reported to the American people.”
“Did he or does he work on the FBI investigation of Mr. Hunter Biden?” Kennedy asked. “The investigation that you’re referring to is going to — and I need to be a little bit careful because we’re talking about an ongoing investigation — is being run out of our Baltimore field office, working with the Delaware US attorney who’s a holdover from the prior administration,” Wray tried to deflect. Kennedy followed up, “So I’m confused, Chris, with your answer. Did he work, or does he work on the Hunter Biden investigation?” Wray again avoided a direct answer, saying, “As I said, that the Hunter Biden investigation is being run out of the Baltimore field office.”
Grassley’s July letter to Wray said Auten and Thibault allegedly were involved in “a scheme” to “undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.” Auten “opened an assessment which was used by an FBI Headquarters (‘FBI HQ’) team to improperly discredit negative Hunter Biden information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to cease,” Grassley wrote. “Verified and verifiable derogatory information on Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as disinformation,” Grassley wrote, citing unnamed whistleblowers. Thibault, on the other hand, is accused to have tried to stop a legitimate avenue of investigation for possible Hunter Biden crimes.
“In October 2020, an avenue of additional derogatory Hunter Biden reporting was ordered closed at the direction of ASAC Thibault… [when] all of the reporting was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants,” Grassley wrote. “Thibault allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI guidelines…. [and] subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.”
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Kennedy: Isn’t it true covered up derogatory info about Hunter Biden while working for the FBI? FBI whistleblower