Peter Thiel has worn many hats over the years: Silicon Valley founder, Trump megadonor, cryptocurrency booster, democracy skeptic.
But there is yet another facet to Thiel, one that has remained secret until now: FBI informant.In the summer of 2021, Insider has learned, . .
www.businessinsider.com
Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant
Mattathias Schwartz
13 - 16 minutes
Peter Thiel has worn many hats over
the years: Silicon Valley founder, Trump megadonor, cryptocurrency
booster, democracy skeptic.
But there is yet another facet to Thiel, one that has remained secret until now: FBI informant.In
the summer of 2021, Insider has learned,
- Thiel began providing information as a "confidential human source," or CHS, to Johnathan Buma, a Los Angeles-based FBI agent who specializes in investigating political corruption and foreign-influence campaigns.
A source with knowledge of Thiel's relationship to the FBI, whose identity is known to Insider but who insisted on anonymity, corroborated Johnson's account, telling Insider that Johnson brokered a relationship between Thiel and Buma.
Insider was
able to confirm through an additional source that the FBI added Thiel
to its formal roster of registered informants.
- Another source close to Thiel told Insider that while they could not confirm that Thiel was a CHS, Thiel did speak to Buma occasionally.
- The source said that any assistance Thiel might have provided to the FBI should be understood as part of Thiel's gradual distancing of himself from Trump and the broader MAGA movement, which has vigorously criticized the FBI and other federal law-enforcement agencies.
Valuable information on a recurring basis
The
FBI maintains a vast network of informants to keep tabs on organized
crime, terrorist threats, extremist groups, and other criminal and
intelligence targets. These sources, according to the bureau's Confidential Human Source Policy Guide, are more than casual tipsters.
Confidential human sources enter "into a relationship with the FBI, and that relationship will forever affect the life of that individual," the guide says. "[They] will be either an 'FBI source' or a 'former FBI source' and, in turn, his or her conduct or misconduct will reflect upon the FBI." As such, the process for recruiting and maintaining such sources is highly regulated, requiring multiple layers of approval.
Confidential human sources enter "into a relationship with the FBI, and that relationship will forever affect the life of that individual," the guide says. "[They] will be either an 'FBI source' or a 'former FBI source' and, in turn, his or her conduct or misconduct will reflect upon the FBI." As such, the process for recruiting and maintaining such sources is highly regulated, requiring multiple layers of approval.
- Only people who are able to provide "valuable information … on a recurring basis" are granted CHS status, according to the policy. . .
- Many of the politicians that Thiel has bankrolled — including Trump, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio, and Blake Masters, a former Arizona senatorial candidate — have repeatedly attacked the bureau and its leadership in public.
In 2022, Vance, whose campaign and affiliated PACs received a
total of $15 million from Thiel, falsely claimed that the FBI had illegally wiretapped Trump's phone.
- Vance accused the bureau of "harassing faithful Christians" and pledged to block all of President Joe Biden's Department of Justice nominees in retaliation for the Trump prosecutions.
- (Most but not all of Thiel's donations occurred in early 2021, before the launch of Vance's campaign and the many false claims he made over the course of the race.)
. . .Doing business with the FBI
Some of Thiel's
business interests rely on the FBI and other government agencies as
potential revenue sources.
- He retains a 10% stake in Palantir, a data company that has sold more than a billion dollars of software and related services to the federal government, including the Pentagon, the CIA, the National Security Agency, and the FBI.
- A $250 million contract with the US Army in September adds to the evidence that Palantir is essentially "a government service provider," a financial analyst said.
The FBI's recruitment of Thiel as a CHS puts him among the bureau's
most prominent assets, but he is not alone among right-wing figures who
have collaborated with the bureau. Trump himself offered to help the FBI fight organized crime in Atlantic City in the early 1980s.
- Truth Social, the Trump-owned social-media company, has quietly tipped the FBI off to users who threaten violence, even as it seeks to cash in on their anger.
- At least two of the rioters who showed up to storm the Capitol on January 6 were also FBI informants, as was Enrique Tarrio, the Proud Boys leader who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other felonies stemming from the Capitol breach. Tarrio reportedly served as a source for federal and local law enforcement, assisting with the prosecution of more than a dozen people.
Mattathias Schwartz is chief national security correspondent at Insider. He can be reached at schwartz79@protonmail.com.
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