House Republicans Warn Ex-FBI Agent to Not Destroy Documents Related to Hunter Biden Investigation

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee listens during a mark up hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington on June 2, 2022. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

Timothy Thibault, a former top FBI official who left the bureau last month, has been warned to not alter or destroy documents and communications in his possession, particularly those connected to his work on the Hunter Biden investigation.

The warning came from three Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee who sent a Sept. 23 letter to Thibault, asking the former FBI agent to “preserve all existing and future records and materials” in his possession.

“Whistleblowers have come to Congress alleging that you were part of a scheme to undermine and discredit allegations of criminal wrongdoing by members of the Biden family. Accordingly, we believe that you possess information relating to our investigation and we request your assistance with our inquiry,” the letter reads.

The letter was signed by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the committee’s ranking Republican member; Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.); and Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.).

Before leaving the FBI, Thibault was an assistant special agent in charge at the bureau’s Washington Field Office.

Thibault came under close scrutiny in late July after FBI whistleblowers told Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) that the former FBI official “ordered closed” information that the bureau had obtained about Hunter Biden’s “criminal financial and related activity” in 2020.

Hunter Biden walks to Marine One on the Ellipse outside the White House on May 22, 2021. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Grassley has also noted (pdf) how Thibault had displayed a political bias against former President Donald Trump, citing his Twitter activities. For example, Thibault once shared a Twitter post that called Trump “a psychologically broken, embittered, and deeply unhappy man.”

However, Thibault’s lawyers with Morrison & Foerster told The Epoch Times in a statement in August that he didn’t show any political partisanship in his work and “did not supervise the investigation of Hunter Biden.”

“You should construe this preservation notice as an instruction to take all reasonable steps to prevent the destruction or alteration, whether intentionally or negligently, of all documents, communications, and other information, including electronic information and metadata, that are or may be responsive to this congressional inquiry,” the three lawmakers told Thibault in their letter.

House Republicans have said that they'll launch an investigation into Hunter Biden if they regain a majority in the chamber in November. As a result, the letter suggests that Thibault would likely be a target of that investigation.

‘Domestic Violent Extremism’

Other documents and communications that Thibault needs to preserve are related to an allegation that he “pressured line agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even though there was minimal, circumstantial evidence to support a reclassification,” the letter reads, citing a July report from Breitbart.

In a letter (pdf) to FBI Director Christopher Wray in July, Jordan said one of the FBI officials pressuring agents to reclassify cases was a “field office Counterterrorism Assistant Special Agent in Charge.” Jordan later told Breitbart that the unnamed agent in his letter was Thibault.

“Given the narrative pushed by the Biden Administration that domestic violent extremism is the ‘greatest threat’ facing our country, the revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous,” Jordan’s letter to Wray reads.

It turns out that the FBI was inflating the number of these cases to make it seem as though the United States has a bigger “domestic violent extremism” than it actually does, Jordan said last week, basing the claim on another whistleblower. The new whistleblower also revealed that the FBI was redirecting resources away from child sexual abuse cases to Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol breach cases.

In their letter, the three Republican lawmakers are also requesting that Thibault take part in a transcribed interview. The former FBI official needs to schedule the interview by Oct. 7, according to the letter.

“We are investigating several allegations concerning the politicization of the Department [of Justice] and the FBI,” the letter reads, noting that Thibault’s testimony “is necessary to advance our oversight.”