FBI official may have violated Hatch Act with anti-Trump posts: DOJ watchdog

The Justice Department’s watchdog said an FBI official handling sensitive criminal cases in the nation’s capital may have violated the law due to his partisan social media posts, many of which criticized then-President Donald Trump and then-Attorney General William Barr.

DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz revealed that Timothy Thibault, the FBI assistant special agent in charge at the Washington Field Office, may have broken the Hatch Act, an inconsistently enforced 1939 law that precludes most executive branch federal employees from engaging in electioneering and political activity.

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) demanded in May that the leaders of the Department of Justice and the FBI investigate whether the official violated DOJ guidelines through partisan posts on social media.

Thibault, who handled public corruption matters and other criminal investigations, “likely violated several federal regulations and Department guidelines designed to prevent political bias from infecting FBI matters, including the Attorney General Guidelines for Domestic FBI Operations and FBI social media policies," Grassley said.