(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The embattled former FBI official who shielded Hunter Biden has been found to have violated the Hatch Act after posting several political messages on social media, the U.S. Office of Special Counsel revealed on Friday. Among these posts was an anti-Trump retweet from the Lincoln Project.
As first reported by Fox News, Timothy Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge based in Washington, D.C., exhibited a “pattern of active public partisanship” that “likely affected” investigations involving former President Donald Trump and Hunter Biden, as stated in an OSC letter addressed to Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.
Remember Thibault the FBI agent that I exposed for his political bias interfering w Biden investigations & others?? Now its confirmed by independent 3rd party that Thibault violated the Hatch Act w his political activities GET POLITICS OUT OF FBI
— Chuck Grassley (@ChuckGrassley) January 26, 2024
Grassley first brought the allegations to the OSC, prompted by whistleblowers who revealed that Thibault, who is no longer employed by the FBI, had authored a memo advocating for a comprehensive investigation into the “electors investigation” of the Trump campaign based on information from a left-wing organization.
“Although Mr. Thibault has left government service, we completed our investigation and concluded that he violated the Hatch Act,” stated the OSC letter. As detailed by the OSC, in July 2020, Thibault retweeted a Lincoln Project post featuring an article from The Atlantic with the headline: “Donald Trump is a Broken Man.”
At the time of the post, Thibault was on leave. However, the Hatch Act prohibits employees from sharing political content “even when they are off duty and away from work,” the letter said.
“By retweeting the Lincoln Project’s message, Mr. Thibault engaged in modern-day leafletting on social media,” it added. “Accordingly, because Mr. Thibault shared a message from a partisan political group on Twitter, OSC has conduced that he acted in concert with a partisan political group, in violation of the Hatch.”
The OSC said that Thibault could face further repercussions if more violations are uncovered. “Mr. Thibault has been warned that if in the future he engaged in activity prohibited by the Hatch Act while employed in a Hatch Act-covered position, OSC would consider such activity to be a willful and knowing violation of the law that could result in disciplinary action,” OSC wrote.
Thibault has become a focal point of investigations related to President Joe Biden and allegations of political interference in the criminal investigation of Hunter Biden, the embattled son of the president. He was accused of ordering the closure of a “derogatory” Hunter Biden report in 2020.
Amid these accusations, the FBI removed Thibault from his role as assistant special agent in charge, ultimately resulting in his resignation, according to Fox News.
