Monday 12 September 2022 10:46 PM Brave whistleblowers are exposing how the nakedly political FBI IS out to get ... trends now

Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity. 

That's the proud motto of the FBI and for decades it's an image that many people around the world have believed to be entirely deserved. 

Hollywood has certainly helped: while it loves to portray the CIA as ruthless and duplicitous, it promotes the FBI - whether defeating the Mob in The Untouchables, serial killers in Silence of the Lambs or Ku Klux Klan murderers in Mississippi Burning - as the dark-suited and tireless champions of law enforcement, even-handed and impartial. 

Just give me the facts, ma'am.

That reputation has been shaken in recent years and it may yet be completely shattered as the bureau faces perhaps the biggest crisis of confidence in its history. 

Can the organization that charged mob-handed into Mar-a-Lago to search Donald Trump's Florida home for evidence of classified White House papers possibly be the same outfit that allegedly told its agents to hold off investigating Hunter Biden's notorious laptop for months? 

And if they are the same organization - and we now know that of course they are - can they seriously still make that bombastic claim - Fidelity, Bravery, Integrity - which sits below the scales of justice on their seal? 

Fidelity, some ask, to whom exactly?

The Republicans are certainly asking that question and they say that a shocking number of FBI whistleblowers are coming forward with claims that they have been politicized by bosses in cahoots with the Democrats and their media allies.

While Republican politicians won't share too many specifics about the whistleblowers to protect their identity, Republican Senator Ron Johnson, Ranking Member on the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, told DailyMail.com that the allegations shared with Congress indicate a level of 'corruption' within the FBI and Department of Justice that needs to be 'exposed.'

Johnson spokeswoman Alex Henning said: 'We do have people of integrity that are concerned about the credibility of their agency and they're coming forward.'

'The only way to restore credibility to these agencies is if we expose the corruption and hold people accountable.'

Senator Chuck Grassley, Mr. Johnson's opposite number on the Judiciary Committee, also says he has heard from several 'highly-credible' bureau whistleblowers alleging there was an attempt within the FBI to downplay or discredit negative information about Hunter Biden.

It was Sen. Grassley who - acting on whistleblower information - over the summer accused senior FBI agent Timothy Thibault of political partisanship both on social media and in his work, in particular sabotaging the continuing investigation into Hunter Biden's business dealings.

'The volume and consistency of these allegations substantiate their credibility and necessitate this letter,' he bluntly told FBI Directory Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland in July.

Thibault, who retired in August soon after the allegations were made, was formerly in charge of the FBI's Washington field office covering the capital and northern Virginia.

Sen. Grassley alleged that Thibault had sought to portray verifiable evidence related to the Hunter Biden investigation as disinformation, and alleged that Thibault had ordered agents to close 'a stream of information related to Hunter Biden' and mark it in a way within internal systems that would prevent it from being reopened.

Sen. Grassley said whistleblowers also informed him that Thibault was assisted by FBI analyst Brian Auten who tried to falsely label reports about Hunter as 'disinformation' in an attempt to bury derogatory information' about him.

Auten has reportedly been allowed to work on sensitive cases even though he has been under internal investigation since 2019, when Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz referred him for disciplinary review over his role in the FBI's controversial investigation of the Trump campaign's alleged collusion with Russia. (And the head of that investigation, Peter Strzok, was sacked over his own vitriolic anti-Trump tweets).

Sen. Grassley claims Thibault closed a separate investigation into Hunter, the President's only surviving son, in October 2020 'without providing a valid reason as required by FBI guidelines'.

Thibault was one of 13 assistant special agents assigned to investigate the Hunter Biden laptop saga and was removed from the supervisory role by FBI Director Christopher Wray last month after agency whistleblowers shed light on an alleged pattern of political bias from multiple high-ranking officials.

Thibault's lawyers say he was never in charge of the Hunter Biden investigation and will be fully exonerated. FBI chief Christopher Wray has admitted that he found Thibault's reported social media posts attacking the Trump administration 'deeply troubling'. On Twitter, Thibault retweeted a post that called Trump 'a psychologically broken, embittered and deeply unhappy man'.

The FBI, Sen Grassley noted pointedly to Wray and the Attorney General 'answers to Congress and the American people'.

The revelations about FBI political bias came as Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, when asked whether his social media site had 'censored' the news about the Biden laptop, admitted the FBI - which had initially declined to take possession of the computer - had warned him about misinformation. 

Both Facebook and Twitter initially banned sharing of the story. 'It sucks,' said Zuckerberg weakly of suppressing a story that some Republicans believe could have changed the election result.