Foreign media revealed: Peter Thiel, a top investor in Silicon Valley, is an FBI informant in the United States

By Mattathias Schwartz, Insider; Compiled: Pine Snow, Golden Finance

Over the years, Peter Thiel has worn many hats: founder of Silicon Valley, huge donor to Trump, cryptocurrency supporter, democracy skeptic.

But Thiel had another side that remains secret to this day: an FBI informant.

In the summer of 2021, Thiel began providing information to Johnathan Buma, an FBI agent based in Los Angeles that specializes in political corruption and foreign influence activities, as "Confidential Human Resources" (CHS).

Charles Johnson, a longtime partner of Thiel and notorious figure in the far-right movement that Thiel funded for a decade, noted in a statement that he helped recruit the billionaire as an informant by introducing him to Boomer.

A source with knowledge of Thiel's ties to the FBI confirmed Johnson's claims and told Johnson that Johnson facilitated the relationship between Thiel and Boomer. The FBI has added Thiel to its official roster of registered informants.

Another source close to Thiel noted that while they could not confirm that Thiel was a CHS, Thiel did speak with Boomer on occasion. Any assistance that Thiel may provide to the FBI should be understood as part of Thiel's gradual departure from Trump and the broader MAGA campaign, which has been highly critical of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies, the sources said.

Provide valuable information on a regular basis

The FBI has a vast network of informants to keep an eye on organized crime, terrorist threats, extremist groups, and other criminal and intelligence targets. According to the Bureau's Confidential HR Policy Guide, these sources are more than casual whistleblowers.

The guide said the confidential source "established a relationship with the FBI that will forever affect that person's life." "[They] are either 'FBI informants' or 'former FBI informants,' and in turn, his or her conduct or misconduct will be influenced by the FBI." As a result, the process of recruiting and maintaining such resources is heavily regulated and requires multiple layers of approval. Under the policy, only those who are able to "provide valuable information on a regular basis" can obtain CHS status.

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President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Peter Thiel during a meeting at Trump Tower in December 2016. Years later, Thiel became an FBI's confidential informant. A colleague said he was instructed not to report his interactions with Trump or other U.S. political figures. Drew Angerer/Getty Images

As a CHS, Thiel was assigned a code name and an internal serial number to track his reports. His messages about foreign contacts and Silicon Valley conspiracies were reviewed and "verified" by his case attorneys and their colleagues, or cross-checked with other sources.

Thiel did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesman for Thiel stopped responding to inquiries after being told Insider was reporting on Thiel's relationship with the FBI.

The FBI's Office of National Information and Jonathan Boomer's attorney, Scott Horton, declined to comment.

Political affiliation not reported

Thiel is a citizen of Germany, the United States and New Zealand; As of last year, he was reportedly in the process of obtaining another passport from Malta. In 2016, he donated $1.25 million to Trump's campaign and supported him on stage at the Republican National Convention. After Trump's victory, Thiel joined his transition team.

Johnson, who also claimed to be Booma's informant, told Insider that he believed Thiel's reporting to the FBI was largely limited to foreign contacts and attempts by foreign governments to infiltrate Silicon Valley. Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government.

Johnson said the FBI instructed Thiel not to report on his interactions with Donald Trump or other U.S. politicians.

Many of the politicians funded by Thiel — including Trump, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and former Arizona Senate candidate Black Masters — have repeatedly attacked the bureau and its leadership in public. In 2022, Vance's campaign and affiliated political action committee received a total of $15 million from Thiel, who falsely claimed that the FBI illegally tapped Trump's phone. Vance accused the bureau of "harassing faithful Christians" and promised to block all of President Joe Biden's Justice Department nominees in retaliation for Trump's prosecution. (Most, but not all, of Thiel's donations occurred in early 2021, before Vance launched his campaign and he made many false claims during the race.) ）

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While serving as an FBI informant, Thiel funded the campaign of current Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Vance made numerous false and defamatory allegations against the FBI. Anna Moneymaker/Getty

Masters' campaign received $20 million in Thiel's support, who backed the false conspiracy theory that FBI undercover agents instigated the January 6, 2021 rebellion and accused FBI agents who executed search warrants for Mar-a-Lago to "hunt down" President Trump because they hated him. (Like Vance, most (but not all) of Thiel's donations to Masters came before Masters made his most inflammatory and baseless remarks later in the campaign.) ）

Thiel reportedly plans to watch the 2024 election.

None of Trump, Masters nor Vance responded to requests for comment.

Doing Business with the FBI

Some of Thiel's business interests rely on the FBI and other government agencies as a potential source of revenue. He retains a 10 percent stake in Palantir, a data company that has sold more than $1 billion in software and related services to the federal government, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA and FBI. The $250 million contract signed in September with the U.S. Army is further proof that Palantir is essentially a "government service provider," a financial analyst said.

As Forbes reported last year, Thiel also backed Boldend, a spyware company that positioned itself as a U.S. competitor to Israel's NSO group. NSO's products have been purchased and tested by the FBI.

(Mithril Capital, another entity co-founded by Thiel, reportedly came under the FBI's attention in 2019, though the investigation appeared to have yielded no results.) Mithril's co-founders did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI did not respond to questions about Mithril. ）

Johnson revealed Thiel's ties to the FBI, a tech investor and far-right demagogue with longstanding ties to Thiel and the MAGA network of political operators surrounding Trump. He claims to have co-founded facial recognition startup Clearview and genomics company Traitwell. According to Forbes, he worked with Thiel to help review and select senior staff members for Trump's 2017 power transition.

In a lawsuit filed against the Clearview founders, Johnson claimed to be an FBI informant. He told Insider that he recruited Thiel for the CHS position and introduced him to FBI agent Bouma, Johnson's agent.

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Charles Johnson (left) with Rep. Matt Gates (right) and Gates' current wife, Ginger Gates, center, in 2021. Johnson told Insider that he made the introduction between Thiel and the FBI agent who later became his agent.

It's unclear if Thiel remains an FBI's community health service worker. Johnson told Insider that he believes the relationship has been severed, but declined to give details; In a statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Boomer wrote that he was ordered to stop contacting all sources by the end of 2022.

Johnson's relationship with Trump and Thiel is well documented. But he is also a self-described "troll" with a history of spreading disinformation and smearing competitors. In this case, his claims were confirmed by two other sources and partially supported by a third, who said that Thiel and Boomer occasionally spoke.

"Join or be crushed"

Boomer came forward as a whistleblower in August, claiming that the FBI, led by Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr, halted efforts to determine whether Rudy Giuliani was compromised by Russian assets. Insider was the first news organization to report his claims.

In a statement prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Boomer said FBI headquarters had shut down his most valuable human resources, including a man codenamed "Genius" who had covered far-right figures involved in planning the Capitol attack in January. December 6, 2021. Johnson told Insider that "Genius" was his CHS codename. Insider confirmed Johnson's "genius" status through two other sources. Thiel was not mentioned in the statement.

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Thiel speaks at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He donated $1.25 million to Trump's campaign in 2016. He supported congressional candidates aligned with MAGA in 2020 and 2022. He has said he will remain on the sidelines in the 2024 presidential race.

Johnson said in a written statement that he will come forward as a CHS to support Boomer's efforts as a whistleblower to achieve what Boomer believes is necessary to make the changes he believes are necessary for the FBI's handling of informants. Johnson said his exposure of Thiel's work as CHS was revenge for a bad decision made by Thiel venture capital firm Founders Fund.

Johnson noted that he felt betrayed by feeling that Thiel had not invested in Johnson's own startup, and that he had hoped that Thiel would do it in exchange for introducing him to Bouma. Johnson said he told Thiel that he could demonstrate his loyalty to the United States by providing the FBI with a window into his contacts with foreign governments.

He described Thiel's motivation for working with Boomer as a hedge in an environment where extravagant wealth no longer provided the security it used to have. He pointed to ProPublica's reports of tax avoidance and the death of Jeffrey Epstein, who reportedly arranged multiple meetings with Thiel.

"I told him to join or get crushed," Johnson said.

The FBI's hiring of Thiel as a community investigator makes him one of the bureau's most important assets, but he's not the only right-wing figure working with the bureau. In the early 80s of the 20th century, Trump himself offered to help the FBI fight organized crime in Atlantic City. Trump's social media company, Truth Social, has quietly reported users who threaten violence to the FBI, even as the company tries to capitalize on users' anger. Among the rioters who stormed the Capitol on January 6, at least two were also FBI informants, as was Pride Boy leader Enrique Tarrio, who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for incitement to conspiracy and other felonies committed for damaging the Capitol. Tarrio reportedly served as a source for federal and local law enforcement, assisting in the prosecution of more than a dozen people.