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It looks like the FBI is doing some housekeeping.
According to a new report, a senior FBI official in the bureau’s Washington field office has been forced out after coming under congressional scrutiny for suspected political bias in handling the investigation of Hunter Biden.
According to the Washington Times, Timothy Thibault, an assistant special agent in charge, was relieved of his duties after GOP senators accused him of jeopardizing the Hunter Biden inquiry.
This is just the latest development in a long-running saga surrounding Hunter Biden and his alleged dealings with a Ukrainian energy company.
The whole thing came to light after it was revealed that Hunter’s father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, had pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was looking into the company.
Hunter Biden has denied any wrongdoing, but the investigation is ongoing.
Thibault’s ousting is likely to add fuel to the fire for those who believe that there is a deep state plot to take down President Donald Trump.
Trump and his allies have long claimed that the FBI and other government agencies are working against him, and this latest development is likely to only reinforce that belief.
Whether or not there is any truth to those claims remains to be seen, but one thing is for sure: the Hunter Biden investigation is not going away anytime soon.
According to The New York Times, veteran counterintelligence agent Mark W. Thibault was seen exiting the bureau’s Washington headquarters on Friday. He was escorted by two or three “headquarters-looking types,” according to the Times.
In September 2020, the FBI placed Thibault, who had worked for the bureau for more than 25 years, on leave as an inquiry began. The inspector general at the Department of Justice is investigating whether Thibault attempted to impede an investigation into Hunter Biden, the vice president’s son.
The Times reports that Thibault is accused of making “derogatory” comments about the investigation to other agents and leaking information to the media.
FBI Director Chris Ray: “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.
“I feel very strongly, and I have communicated consistently since I started as director, that our folks need to make sure that they’re not just doing the right thing, that they’re doing it in the right way and that they avoid even the appearance of bias or lack of objectivity.”
“Sometimes this gets lost in a lot of public commentaries.
“We are not investigating whether or not information we see is truthful or false.
“Our focus in the malign foreign influence space is whether or not there is a foreign adversary pushing the information.”
Thibeault is accused of “liking” a Washington Post article on social media that was critical of Attorney General William Barr and of tweeting to Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) that her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, was a “disgrace.”
The Post reports that Thibeault has also been accused of retweeting a Lincoln Project post that said, “Donald Trump is a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.”
In response to the senators’ letter, Wray reportedly told them that Thibeault had been removed from the case and reassigned to another position.
The news of Thibeault’s removal comes as the FBI is facing increased scrutiny over its handling of the Hunter Biden investigation.
Last week, it was revealed that the bureau had seized a laptop from Hunter Biden that contained potentially incriminating emails.
However, the FBI has not released any information about the content of the emails, and it is not clear if they are related to Hunter Biden’s work on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
The FBI is also facing criticism for its decision to investigate President-elect Joe Biden’s son, Hunter, for his business dealings in China.
