A former FBI agent who now represents several current FBI “whistleblowers” has just added another log onto the fire that is burning the FBI. Kurt Siuzdak, a lawyer and former FBI agent, told The Washington Times on Wednesday that “they’re saying, ‘How does this guy [Christopher Wray] survive? … He’s got to leave.’”
Siuzdak, a 25-year veteran of the agency, left in March due to what he perceived to be a strong partisan political bias at the very top of the FBI.
At the “very top” sits a Trump appointee, Christopher Wray, who replaced Jim Comey as head of the agency after Trump fired him in May 2017. As Wray is a Yale law graduate and a member of the prestigious Federalist Society, with a long history in both public service and private practice, Trump thought he was appointing someone who would clean house.
Instead, the man he chose turns out to be part of the problem instead of the solution.
Thanks to numerous FBI whistleblowers — agents inside the agency seeing firsthand how political bias is playing out against Trump and for Biden — Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley has brought the situation to light. Serving as the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, he has been privy to numerous agents’ complaints about that bias and has written repeatedly to Wray asking for explanations.
In his letters, dating back to May of this year, Grassley wrote of his concerns:
In light of these allegations [by FBI whistleblowers], I remain very concerned that political bias by a select group of Justice department and FBI officials has infected the Justice Department and FBI’s usual process and procedure to open and pursue high-profile and politically charged investigations.
There is a blatant double standard at play in the agency:
The double standard in the application of Justice Department and FBI policies has resulted in investigations opened in a manner appearing to benefit the political aims and objectives of a select few Justice Department and FBI officials.
Further, it is my understanding from whistleblowers that when FBI agents sought a uniform and consistent application of these standards, their concerns were marginalized or otherwise not acted upon.
Grassley noted specifically the actions of FBI Assistant Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault, noting that he exhibited a “pattern of active public partisanship” and requesting an investigation into that “pattern.” Thibault exhibited his bias against Donald Trump in a series of social media posts which, when Grassley’s letter became public, were deleted.
Thibault also had a hand in dismissing demands that Hunter Biden’s laptop information be investigated, calling any such evidence “disinformation.” Grassley wrote that the whistleblower information available to him “involves concerns about the FBI’s receipt and use of derogatory information related to Hunter Biden, and the FBI’s false portrayal of [that] evidence as disinformation.”
Grassley noted:
In fact, the information I have received reveals that Thibault’s political partisanship went much deeper than the inappropriate social media posts. Instead, it impacted his official decision-making on sensitive public corruption investigations.
Equally concerning is that, based on Justice Department and FBI policies, Thibault’s partisanship likely affected investigations briefed to, and approved by, senior Justice Department and FBI officials.
Thibault was put on temporary leave following Grassley’s claims, and that temporary leave became permanent this weekend when Thibault announced his retirement from the agency. His lawyer, not surprisingly, said that his client’s retirement from the agency had nothing whatsoever to do with Hunter Biden “misinformation” or his political bias exposed in those deleted social media posts.
Sending Thibault off into retirement isn’t going to end the corruption at the very top of the FBI, though. Hopefully he will serve not as the scapegoat, but as the first of many at the top to be exposed. Wrote Grassley:
Starting on May 31, 2022, I’ve written three letters to you [Director Wray] regarding political bias that has infected the FBI’s Washington Field Office.
Two of those letters provided specific and credible allegations based on numerous whistleblowers that have approached my office with information that one can only conclude is indicative of a deeply rooted political infection that has spread to investigative activity into former President Trump and Hunter Biden.
So far, the only response to Grassley’s demands has been the canning of a minor player in the agency’s grand scheme to sully Trump and protect Biden. If Republicans regain control of the Senate in November, then one may reasonably expect Grassley’s demands will be taken much more seriously.
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