The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), noted that Wray was not flying commercially and unsuccessfully asked the FBI chief to reschedule the departure of his government jet. But before he left, Wray was pressed by Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) about whistleblower claims against Tim Thibault, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s DC field office, and FBI supervisory intelligence analyst Brian Auten. Kennedy confronted Wray with allegations against the two FBI employees that Grassley revealed last month. FBI Director Christopher Wray testifies during a hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the Hart Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, August 4, 2022. Getty Images “It is not true that Mr. Thibault—Agent Thibault, excuse me—and [Auten] covered up derogatory information about Mr. Hunter Biden while working for the FBI?” Kennedy asked Ray on Thursday. “I want to be very careful not to interfere in ongoing personnel matters,” Ray replied. “I have to say that when I read the letter describing the kinds of things you’re talking about, I found it deeply disturbing.” Wray was questioned about alleged bias in the agents’ investigation of Hunter Biden. Kennedy also mentioned to Wray a variety of Thibault’s social media jabs against Republicans, which resembled the GOP attacks by FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page during the bureau’s investigation into possible Russian collusion with Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. Grassley’s July letter to Wray said Auten and Thibault allegedly engaged in “a scheme” to “undermine disparaging information associated with Hunter Biden by falsely suggesting it was misinformation.” Otten “opened an evaluation that was used by an FBI HQ team to improperly discredit Hunter Biden’s negative information as disinformation and caused investigative activity to be discontinued,” Grassley wrote. “[V]verified and verifiable disparaging information about Hunter Biden was falsely labeled as misinformation,” Grassley wrote, citing unnamed whistleblowers. Thibault, meanwhile, allegedly tried to kill a valid avenue of investigation into Hunter Biden’s possible criminality. GOP Sen. John Kennedy questioned Wray during a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday.AP “In October 2020, an avenue of additional derogatory mentions of Hunter Biden was ordered shut down at the direction of ASAC Thibault… [when] all reports were either verified or verified through a criminal search warrant,” Grassley wrote. “Thibault allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI guidelines…. [and] then attempted to improperly flag the matter in the FBI’s systems so that it could not be opened in the future.” Kennedy on Thursday cited some of Thibault’s social media posts and asked the FBI director, “Do you know how this looks to the American people?” “I will tell you that what you describe is not representative of the FBI … where I see patriots coming off the hook with terrible integrity and objectivity,” Wray said. Kennedy asked Wray to confirm whether or not Thibault was involved in the ongoing investigation of Hunter Biden into possible tax fraud, unregistered foreign lobbying and money laundering — but Wray did not immediately respond. “Did he or does he work on the FBI investigation of Mr. Hunter Biden?” Kennedy asked. “The investigation you’re referring to is going to be — and I have to be a little careful because we’re talking about an ongoing investigation — going to be run out of our office in Baltimore, working with the Delaware US attorney who is a holdover from the previous administration,” he tried to deflect. Ray. Sen. Chuck Grassley’s letter to Wray last month regarding the conduct of FBI agents was discussed during Thursday’s hearing. AP Kennedy followed up, “So, I’m confused, Chris, with your answer. Did he or does he work on the Hunter Biden investigation?” Wray again avoided a direct answer, saying, “As I said, the Hunter Biden investigation is being run out of the Baltimore field office.” Thibault’s alleged social media activity included a retweet of a Lincoln Project message calling Donald Trump a “psychologically broken, bitter and deeply unhappy man” and a tweet saying he wanted to “give Kentucky to the Russian Federation.” Hunter Biden recently cut the IRS a check for about $2 million in an admission that he failed to pay taxes on a windfall of foreign income. The funds were reportedly provided by Hollywood lawyer Kevin Morris, but it’s unclear what the bonds are, and repayment does not prevent prosecution. The first son’s foreign dealings gained significant attention this year when the Washington Post and New York Times in March verified late documents from a former Hunter Biden laptop first reported by The Post in October 2020. Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, was discussed during a Senate Judiciary hearing Thursday. AP Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s business deals are generally murky and continue to present conflicts of interest for the president. Emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop show his father, then vice president, attended a dinner in DC in 2015 with a group of his son’s associates from Ukraine, Russia and Kazakhstan. A photo shows Joe Biden posing with the Kazakhstan team, and a day after the dinner, Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive at Ukrainian gas company Burisma, emailed the then-second son to thank him for the opportunity to meet his father . Hunter Biden earned $1 million a year to serve on Burisma’s board while his father led the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy. Russian billionaire Yelena Baturina, an alleged 2015 dinner attendee and widow of a former Moscow mayor, has not faced US sanctions this year in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite Biden imposing sanctions on several other members of the Russian elite In China, Joe Biden is reportedly involved in his son’s dealings with CEFC China Energy, which the Washington Post reported paid Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim Biden $4.8 million in 2017 and 2018. The former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski says he spoke with Joe Biden in May 2017 about the deal, and a May 13, 2017 email says the “big guy” would get a 10 percent equity stake in a corporate entity formed with CEFC. Bobulinski claims the president was the “big guy.” Also in China, Hunter Biden co-founded an investment firm called BHR Partners in 2013 less than two weeks after flying with his father to Beijing on Air Force Two. Hunter introduced Joe Biden to BHR CEO Jonathan Li in a hotel lobby in the Chinese capital. The fund is partly controlled by government entities. Hunter Biden’s attorney, Chris Clark, said less than a week after President Biden’s November summit with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the first son divested of his 10 percent stake in BHR Partners, but Hunter Biden and The White House did not elaborate, and online business filings show Hunter Biden still owns 10 percent of the stock.
