Peter Thiel is an FBI informant, lol. (Also whoever at the FBI code named Chuck Johnson "Genius" was surely being sarcastic.) https://t.co/MAGswfsi5o
— Elizabeth Spiers (@espiers) October 19, 2023
I hadn’t thought about Chuck ‘Rage Furby’ Johnson since around the time Trump staged that famous escalator ride, and I wouldn’t trust him if he walked in soaking wet and said it was raining. But if more informed individuals are willing to accept those accusations, however provisionally, there’s certainly no reason to doubt that Peter ‘Palantir’ Thiel would be willing to take Big Gubmint Surveillance’s shilling.
So, since I’ve been a Democrat for the last sixty years, the question for me is: Why does the FBI want their sponsorship to be known now?
… 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.
Charles Johnson, a longtime associate of Thiel’s and a notorious figure in the far-right movement that Thiel has subsidized for a decade, told Insider in a statement that he helped recruit the billionaire as an informant by introducing him to Buma.
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…
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. Only people who are able to provide “valuable information … on a recurring basis” are granted CHS status, according to the policy…
Thiel is a citizen of Germany, the United States, and New Zealand; as of last year, he was reportedly in the process of acquiring yet another passport, from Malta. In 2016, he donated $1.25 million to Trump’s campaign and endorsed him from the stage at the Republican National Convention. After Trump won, Thiel served on his transition team…
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.
Thiel also backed Boldend, a spyware company marketing itself as an American competitor to the Israeli NSO Group, Forbes reported last year. NSO’s products have been bought and tested by the FBI…
Johnson, who revealed Thiel’s FBI ties, is a tech investor and far-right agitator with long-standing ties to both Thiel and to the network of MAGA political operators surrounding Trump. He claims to have had a hand in founding Clearview, a facial-recognition startup, and Traitwell, a genomics company. According to Forbes, he worked with Thiel to help vet and select senior staffers for the Trump transition in 2017…
Johnson’s ties to Trump and Thiel are well-documented. But he is also a self-identified “troll” with a history of spreading false information and smearing his rivals. In this instance, his claims are corroborated by two additional sources, as well as supported in part by a third who says Thiel and Buma spoke occasionally…
Buma came forward in August as a whistleblower, alleging that the FBI under Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr shut down his efforts to determine whether Rudy Giuliani had been compromised by a Russian asset. Insider was the first news organization to report on his claims.
In a statement prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Buma said that FBI headquarters had closed his most valuable human sources, including one code-named “Genius,” who had reported on far-right figures involved with planning the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Johnson told Insider that “Genius” was his CHS code name. Insider was able to confirm Johnson’s identity as “Genius” with two additional sources. The statement does not mention Thiel.
…[Johnson] described Thiel’s motivation for working with Buma as a kind of hedge in an environment where extravagant wealth no longer affords the safety it used to. He pointed to ProPublica’s reporting on Thiel’s income-tax avoidance and the death of Jeffrey Epstein, who had reportedly scheduled several meetings with Thiel.
“I told him to join up or get crushed,” Johnson said…
Alison Rose
The secret handshake at the Fuckface Club.
piratedan
Considering the past history of the Rage Furby, it REALLY makes me question just what the FUCK is going on down at the FBI.
AJ of the Mustard Search and Rescue Team
@Alison Rose: Well said.
Ty for the late-night reading AL.
Hope everyone is doing ok.
bjacques
I’d like to think this revelation will have consequences for Thiel (or Johnson), but I’m stumped as to what they might be. Thiel wouldn’t be the first avowed Libertarian to be in bed with the government.
Odie Hugh Manatee
Chuck Johnson is a floor-pooping genius!
eclare
It just seems so weird. Like piratedan asked, what the fuck is going on at the FBI?
Nukular Biskits
I’m confused by that first tweet.
Is the “Chuck Johnson” of the story the same as the Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs and author of that first tweet?
satby
Why does the FBI want their sponsorship to be known now?
Interesting question, but do they? Or is the rage furby going rogue because he’s miffed at Thiel? I’m looking forward to further developments on this: more indictments too I hope.
satby
@Nukular Biskits: No, Little Green Footballs Charles Johnson, like the blogfather, was formerly a conservative who has moderated into sanity. Chuck C. Johnson is the rage furby, a wanna be right wing mover and shaker who really just trolls liberals.
Bruce K in ATH-GR
@satby: Common issue. I recall someone from Europe who I communicate with on Twitter read something inflammatory from Steve King, the Congresscritter, and expressed shock and dismay that the author of books that meant so much to them would say such horrible things. I had to gently inform them that Steve King of Iowa, the hideous politician, was not Stephen King of Maine, the author, who would likely agree with their reaction.
satby
@Bruce K in ATH-GR: And we all light a virtual candle for Mathew Gertz (Media Matters) when Matt Gaetz opens his evil mouth.
p.a.
So Thiel allegedly reports to the FBI on foreign $$$ in American politics. Post Citizens United, we know there IS foreign $$$ swirling around, and the FBI does… ?
So Thiel is either useless, or the FBI is like the rental car company in Seinfeld. They know how to gather the information but don’t know what to do with the information.
Or both are true.
satby
@p.a.: Or, like all large investigations over multiple players and parts, it takes time to get corroborating evidence (not hearsay) of actual crimes that can be charged, and then for a prosecutor to build a case.
Edit: plus, the agent in question came forward as a whistleblower just this last August about Barr’s interference in the investigation.
Gvg
@Nukular Biskits: They not only are not the same person, the name confusion has caused the Little Green Footballs Charles and all the regulars on his site to keep track of what the evil Charles Johnson is up to and report it extensively. The same name has caused the LGF Charles to have reputational problems and made him mad.
I wasn’t there when it happened but according to him, 911 made him go islamaphobic. He went too far and ended up hanging out with some very right wing white internationalists and went to some conference in Europe where he realized they were nazi’s. He came back and denounced them and completely turned around. There was a huge change on his site and what was called the great purge where a lot of people were banned or flounced. This caused a kind of feud with some on the right holding a grudge.
i don’t know if the Charles Johnson in this Theil story knows about Little Green Footballs, but they follow every story about him if you ever want to know.
Chris Johnson
@satby: Or, like the Secret Service, the place is split or has been split, previously. Factionalized, to the point that you end up getting purges and getting it straightened out. I don’t think it’s possible that we still have Trump loyalists at the Secret Service: obviously a VERY big consideration.
Similarly, I’m not sure whoever Peter Thiel was aligned with at the FBI, is still in power. I think if we’re hearing about it, it’s because he’s getting burned and there’s nothing at the FBI to protect him. In Thiel’s circles, getting flagged as an FBI informant is just bad.
I would say him working with and influencing the FBI is bad, but if that was still the case we wouldn’t be hearing about this?
mrmoshpotato
We’re all stealing this.
Anne Laurie
@mrmoshpotato: Fair warning — I stole it from MAD Magazine, maybe forty years ago.
mrmoshpotato
@satby:
LOL! And enjoy that Gertz has been taking it in stride.
mrmoshpotato
@Anne Laurie: Ok. Then we’re stealing it from them. It’s a great line.
YOINK! /Simpsons
satby
@Chris Johnson: Everything isn’t a conspiracy. Lots of investigations fail, especially when top brass interferes; but sometimes there’s nothing chargeable. Since SCOTUS decided C.U.N.T.’s case (the full name of the org that brought Citizen’s United*), several forms of what we used to consider corruption are no longer illegal.
*and a carefully chosen direct slur on Hillary Clinton.
Manyakitty
@satby: oh, that poor guy! Bless him for his perseverance