You've heard of this guy, Thibault. He was so corrupt that even Christopher Wray was forced to stop protecting him.
EXCLUSIVE: WASHINGTON--A previously identified anti-Trump FBI agent allegedly broke protocol and played a critical role in opening and advancing the bureau's original investigation related to the 2020 election, tying President Donald Trump to the probe without sufficient predication, whistleblower disclosures obtained by Sen. Chuck Grassley revealed.
That investigation into Trump was formally opened by the FBI on April 13, 2022, and was known inside the bureau as "Arctic Frost," Fox News Digital has learned.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Sen. Ron Johnson, Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations chair, shared internal FBI emails and predicating documents -- legally protected whistleblower disclosures -- exclusively with Fox News Digital.
The senators say the documents prove the genesis of the federal election interference case brought against Trump began at the hands of FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.
Fox News Digital exclusively reported in 2024 that Thibault had been fired from the FBI after he violated the Hatch Act in his political posts on social media. Previous whistleblowers claimed that Thibault had shown a "pattern of active public partisanship," which likely affected investigations involving Trump and Hunter Biden.
Grassley first publicly revealed the existence of the whistleblower disclosures during the Senate Judiciary Committee's confirmation hearing for Trump's nominee to serve as FBI director, Kash Patel, on Thursday.
One email, obtained and reviewed by Fox News Digital, revealed Thibault communicating with a subordinate agent on Feb. 14, 2022.
Thibault said: "Here is draft opening language we discussed," and attached material that would later become part of Special Counsel Jack Smith's elector case.
Another email, sent by Thibault on Feb. 24, 2022, to a prosecutor in the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, John Crabb, states: "I had a discussion with the case team and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject."
Sources told Fox News Digital, though, that Thibault took the action to open the investigation and involve Trump, despite being unauthorized to open criminal investigations in his role -- only special agents have the authority to open criminal investigations.
Another email, sent on the same day, notes that he would seek approval from Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher Wray to open the case.
Next, an email on Feb. 25, 2022, sent by a subordinate agent, Michelle Ball, to Thibault states that they added Trump and others as a criminal subject to the case.
Thibault responded: "Perfect."
...
Fox News Digital first reported in July 2022 that Grassley warned Attorney General Merrick Garland that Thibault and Pilger were "deeply involved in the decisions to open and pursue election-related investigations against President Trump."
At the time, whistleblowers told Grassley that the Thibault-Pilger investigation's predicating document was based on information from "liberal nonprofit American Oversight."