FBI officials inaccurately labeled verified evidence against Hunter Biden as disinformation, bureau whistleblowers told lawmakers, Sen. Charles E. Grassley revealed on Monday.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and FBI Director Christopher A. Wray, Mr. Grassley said his office has been contacted by current and former “highly credible whistleblowers” who described how the FBI improperly sought to discredit the Hunter Biden case by labeling “verified and verifiable derogatory information about the president’s son as disinformation.”
By inaccurately labeling the evidence as disinformation, investigative activity in the Hunter Biden probe was brought to a halt by FBI officials.
“If these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and FBI are — and have been — institutionally corrupted to their very core to the point in which the United States Congress and the American people will have no confidence in the equal application of the law,” wrote Mr. Grassley of Iowa, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
A Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed receipt of Mr. Grassley’s letter but otherwise declined to comment. The FBI did not return a request for comment.
In May, Mr. Grassley requested the Justice Department inspector general open an investigation into Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault and others who led the FBI’s Hunter Biden probe in 2020 when Hunter’s father, now President Biden, was running for the White House.
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Mr. Thibault has come under fire for alleged partisan social media posts, including retweeting Lincoln Project posts and other anti-Trump groups as well as slamming Republicans. He has since hidden his social media content from public view.
In his letter, Mr. Grassley wrote that the whistleblowers told him that the Justice Department and FBI are required to follow strict guidelines to open an investigation and alleged that Mr. Thibault did not follow those guidelines.
The whistleblowers also revealed that Mr. Thibault shut down a line of inquiry into Hunter Biden in October 2020 because it was false information, even though some of the details were known to be accurate at the time, according to the senator.
“All of the reporting (in the case) was either verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants,” he wrote, adding Mr. Thibault “ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required.”
FBI officials “subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so it could not be opened in the future,” Mr. Grassley alleged.
Mr. Grassley wrote that there was an FBI “scheme in place among certain FBI officials to undermine derogatory information connected to Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was disinformation.”
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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