[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 128 (Monday, August 1, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Page S3796]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                           FBI Investigations

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, we all know that Congress has a 
constitutional responsibility to ensure that the executive branch 
executes the laws and uses taxpayers' money appropriately in accordance 
with congressional intent. It doesn't matter whether we have a 
Republican President, a Democratic President, a Republican Senate, or a 
Democratic Senate. We all have the constitutional responsibility of 
checking the executive branch.
  In furtherance of that constitutional responsibility, Congress has an 
obligation to investigate the executive branch for fraud, for waste, 
for abuse, and even gross mismanagement.
  And if Congress finds potential wrongdoing, we have an obligation to 
the American people to make sure that it is public because transparency 
of the public's business brings accountability to those who conduct 
that public business.

  Last week, I made public two oversight letters that I have sent to 
the Justice Department and to the FBI. These two letters are part of my 
investigation into a political bias that is infecting the Department of 
Justice and the FBI.
  These letters are based on information provided to my office by 
whistleblowers, and I hope everybody knows that I consider 
whistleblowers as patriots. And whistleblowers have to have guts, and 
they do have guts.
  And Director Wray has personally told me that these whistleblowers 
won't be subject to retaliation, as often, whistleblowers in the 
Federal Government are subject to retaliation, hurting themselves 
professionally and maybe even losing their jobs.
  Now, these letters that I sent follow up on a May 31, 2022, letter to 
the Justice Department, the FBI, and the inspector general.
  In those letters, I provided evidence of extreme leftwing bias shown 
by a special agent in charge by the name of Tim Thibault. He is special 
agent in charge of the FBI's Washington field office.
  Now, he has since been referred to the Office of Special Counsel for 
potential Hatch Act violations. Thibault is at the center of my two 
letters sent last week. The first letter relates to an FBI 
investigation that Thibault opened on the Trump campaign and its 
advisers. He allegedly had help from Richard Pilger, an official in the 
Justice Department's Election Crime Branch within the Public Integrity 
Section. During Chairman Durbin's investigation into the Justice 
Department misconduct, Pilger really stood out.
  The committee interviewed Richard Donoghue, the former Principal 
Associate Deputy Attorney General during the Trump administration. He 
was also a key January 6 Committee witness. Donoghue testified to the 
Judiciary Committee that Pilger's conduct frustrated the Department's 
ability to properly operate the Elections Crime Branch.
  Thibault and Pilger played a major role in opening the criminal 
investigation into the Trump campaign. And this isn't a preliminary 
investigation; it is a full investigation, which requires heightened 
standards to go forward with that investigation.
  According to the whistleblowers that contacted my office, the opening 
memo for that investigation is based, in substantial part, on liberal 
news reporting. Liberal news reports are not enough for a full 
investigation. The Washington Post reported on the investigation last 
Tuesday. However, the Post did not report that Thibault and Pilger were 
involved in opening that case against Trump and his advisers. Yet 
Attorney General Garland and Director Wray allegedly approved opening 
those investigations.
  Now, as I have said in my letter to those two people, if you are 
going to open an investigation, you have to do it in the right way.
  So let's contrast this investigation with what the FBI has done with 
the information received from sources relating to Hunter Biden. 
Whistleblowers have told my office that the FBI maintains many sources 
that have provided extensive information on Hunter Biden. That 
information allegedly involves potential criminal activity, such as 
money laundering. That is the same criminal concern that Senator 
Johnson and I raised in our 2020 Biden report. To clarify, that was way 
back in 2020. According to the whistleblowers' allegations, the 
underlying information was verified and was verifiable.
  Now, here is where it is appropriate to raise questions about 
politics and political interference in investigations. However, instead 
of green-lighting the investigative activity, the FBI shut down the 
Hunter investigation.
  So, now, how did they do that? According to allegations, in August 
2020, FBI Supervisory Intelligence Analyst Brian Auten opened an 
assessment. That assessment was used by the FBI officials to improperly 
discredit Hunter Biden's information as you know what? Disinformation. 
Those officials allegedly included Thibault.
  Then, in October 2020, an avenue of additional Hunter reporting was 
ordered closed at the direction of Special Agent Thibault. It has been 
alleged that Thibault and others suggested to FBI agents that the 
information was at risk of being you know what? Disinformation. 
However, according to allegations, the source reporting was either 
verified or verifiable via criminal search warrants.
  Thibault allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a 
valid reason as required by FBI guidelines. In other words, Thibault 
shut down an allegedly legitimate avenue of information. So in order to 
shut down Hunter Biden sources and investigative leads, the FBI engaged 
in a disinformation campaign against itself and its own agents. If 
these allegations are true and accurate, the Justice Department and the 
FBI are and have been substantially corrupted.
  Before I conclude, I want to know four things regarding the summer of 
2020. Yes, the summer of 2020: The opening of Auten's assessment in 
August 2020; secondly, efforts by the FBI officials to shut down Hunter 
Biden's investigative activity; third, efforts by the FBI to provide a 
really unnecessary briefing to me and Senator Johnson in August of 
2020--that reading was purportedly about our Biden investigation, but 
it had nothing to do with the Biden investigation--fourth, and lastly, 
leaks relating to the briefing and the liberal media and Democrats 
falsely accusing me and Senator Johnson of advancing Russian 
information.

  All of those four data points happened as Senator Johnson and I 
prepared to finalize our September 2020 Biden report. These data points 
show a plan was in place at the FBI to undermine anything related to 
Hunter Biden.
  Attorney General Garland and Director Wray, you both have an 
obligation to the country to immediately investigate these allegations 
and to clean house.
  And my oversight work on this and related matters will certainly 
continue.