Arctic Frost probe driven early on by anti-Trump FBI agent, claims by liberal outlets, memos show

An FBI supervisor who openly opposed Donald Trump on social media played a crucial role in igniting the controversial Arctic Frost probe, pressing to add the former president as a formal subject of the investigation and circulating articles from liberal activists and leftwing news sources to make his case, according to evidence recently turned over to Congress and obtained by Just the News.

Special Agent Timothy Thibault, who left his role as the assistant agent in charge of its Washington field office in August 2022 after his anti-Trump social posts became public, organized the initial electronic communication that authorized the start of the Arctic Frost probe.

He also circulated by email clippings from such anti-Trump outlets as Just Security, NPR, and The Washington Post, pushing for a criminal probe of Trump related to the Jan. 6, 2022 Capitol riot, the memos show.

When Thibault's colleagues originally drafted the investigation's launch document to focus on the Trump campaign and affiliated and still unknown subjects, "Add DJT" was scribbled onto the draft memo. Emails indicate Thibault was pushing to add Trump to the investigative launch document.

Revelations include emails from 2022 where Thibault shared articles and podcasts critical of Trump, including a prosecution-style memo authored by a former Obama DOJ official. 

Thibault also sought to promote media coverage from outlets with left-leaning perspectives, such as NPR, as well as podcasts produced by The Daily Beast. The focus of these articles was Trump’s alleged crimes and efforts to overturn the election.

An unearthed email from April 2022 showed Thibault approving the opening of Arctic Frost.

The former FBI official did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to him by Just the News through lawyers who previously represented him.

Circulated a "prosecution memo-style" article by former Obama DOJ attorney to promote a criminal case

The newly-released memos show Thibault had emailed redacted FBI agents in late February 2022, telling them to “please review this” as he shared an article titled “United States v. Donald Trump” from the left-leaning and anti-Trump Just Security outlet, a project based out of the Just Security is based at the Reiss Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law.

Barbara McQuade, the author of the article, is a former Obama DOJ veteran and prominent anti-Trump voice who has written numerous books and articles attacking the president.

“The following memorandum is a model ‘prosecution memo’ analyzing potential charges against former President Donald Trump for his efforts to pressure Mike Pence to abuse his authority as vice president in an attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021,” McQuade wrote in the article shared by Thibault, with McQuade comparing her article to the 2019 report produced by special counsel Robert Mueller’s Trump-Russia investigation.

Hints that he had arrangements with NPR, other media

Thibault again sought to push left-leaning media coverage to multiple FBI officials in early March 2022, sending an email saying that there “may be a good reporting [sic] on the electors tonight on NPR.”

It is not clear which specific NPR story Thibault may have been referring to, but earlier in 2022, NPR had published multiple stories on the January 6 saga with titles such as “The Jan. 6 panel subpoenas 14 people in fake electors scheme tied to Trump,” “GOP candidates and leaders subpoenaed as Jan. 6 panel dives into fake electors scheme,” and “How Trump sought to use fake electors, conspiracy theories to remain in power.”

Thibault sent another early March 2022 email to multiple members of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, saying, FYSA [for your self-awareness] …a couple podcasts you may find informational.”

Another podcast he circulated inside the FBI was a late February 2022 episode of The New Abnormal podcast produced by The Daily Beast, while the second podcast was a March 2022 feature produced by The Washington Post.

The first podcast said that McQuade was joining “to explain how Trump’s big lie is a provable crime” and added, “Did Donald Trump commit a crime on and before Jan. 6? Barbara McQuade, former national security prosecutor for the Eastern District of Michigan, says yes.”

The Washington Post's podcast said that “a team of Danish filmmakers spent more than two years following Trump confidant and adviser Roger Stone” and that “their footage — and an investigation from The Washington Post — shed new light on Stone’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.”

Emails previously released by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley showed that, in late February 2022, Thibault said that “I am working to get DOJ and FBIHQ to gain approval to open a case on the Trump campaign et al. [sic] for conspiring to defraud the US Govt [Government] via the elector scheme. This case will be worked by CR15.”

The FBI public corruption unit in question — CR-15 — which had run Operation Arctic Frost was disbanded by FBI Director Kash Patel last year.

January 6 gives Thibault's jihad new fuel, implies they've got Trump now

Thibault sent an early March 2022 email to multiple FBI agents with “the latest draft opening” aimed at Trump regarding January 6, according to the newly-obtained records.

Grassley also released a late February 2022 email where Thibault said that “here is draft opening language we discussed.” Grassley also released an email from that month when the FBI agent said that, “I had a discussion with the case team, and we believe there to be predication to include former President of the United States Donald J. Trump as a predicated subject.”

The newly-obtained bureau records show Christopher Macrae, then the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Atlanta field office, sent a late March 2022 email to Thibault with “Enclosures” including “FBI Director [Christopher Wray] approval to open captioned investigation” and “Attorney General [Merrick Garland] written approval to open captioned investigation.”

Thibault had indicated that he was willing to consider investigating Trump as early as March 2017, according to a document which Grassley released.

Agent admitted they had no smoking gun but vowed to keep looking for "anything we find."

The FBI agent had said in an email that he was “not sure where the rumor started” that his office “was leaning toward open [sic] a case on the Trump campaign” as he admitted that “we weren't close to opening a PI/FI [preliminary investigation / full investigation] on the Trump Campaign.”

But Thibault added: “What we are doing: Aggressively seeking out open-source information, HUMINT [human intelligence] info that could predicate a case.” He said that “we have, over the past month, been actively collaborating” with the FBI’s Washington Field Office in the effort and said that he would “continue open conversations with” FBI headquarters “on what, if anything we find.” Thibault said that “if nothing else, we want to be a resource for them if they have questions about the inner working of federal political campaigns (in-kind contributions, law prohibiting foreign contributions, straw donor campaigns, and Super Pacs/dark money).”

Even as Thibault displayed a willingness early on to target Trump, Grassley questioned in the summer of 2022 whistleblowers' reports to him that Thibault had “ordered closed” an “avenue of additional derogatory” information on Hunter Biden." The senator wrote that Thibault “allegedly ordered the matter closed without providing a valid reason as required by FBI guidelines” and that he “subsequently attempted to improperly mark the matter in FBI systems so that it could not be opened in the future.”

Thibault’s attorneys from the Morrison & Foerster law firm pushed back on these claims in 2022. "There have been allegations that Mr. Thibault took certain actions in investigations for partisan political reasons," the then-retired FBI agent’s lawyers said. “Mr. Thibault did not supervise the investigation of Hunter Biden [and] Mr. Thibault welcomes any investigation of these false allegations, regardless of his retirement."

The continued revelations about Thibault’s role in using the considerable power of the FBI to target Trump over January 6 will likely lend further fuel to the fire, as House Republicans have committed to a public hearing with Jack Smith.