In July 2022 Sen. Chuck Grassley released a statement and a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland. The Senate page says whistleblowers alleged that Washington Field Office ASAC Timothy Thibault disregarded agency guidelines on predication, and that “Thibault and Richard Pilger, director of the election crimes branch within the FBI’s public integrity section” — the release’s wording; Pilger was a DOJ official, not an FBI employee — “reportedly were instrumental in the opening of an investigation into the Trump campaign and its associates based in substantial part on information from left-aligned organization.”
The same release says whistleblowers claimed Thibault, Pilger, and others did not always follow policy on campaign-finance matters across cycles, and that the claims “comport with” Donoghue testimony that Public Integrity and Election Crimes “frequently asserted authority they did not have.” Those are allegations and a comparison to testimony. They are not an indictment.
John Solomon’s same-week Just the News article tied that whistleblower mention to the older Lerner emails. Fox News later restated the Thibault pairing when Arctic Frost documents were discussed. Secondary journalism is not the email.