Or for an FBI informant? Demystifying the multiple identities of tech giant Peter Thiel

原文标题：《Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant》

Mattathias Schwartz, Business Insider

Original text compilation: Rhythm Workers, BlockBeats! [Or an FBI informant?] Demystifying the multiple identities of tech giant Peter Thiel] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-7f230462a9-b4ade67782-dd1a6f-69ad2a.webp)

Peter Thiel has had multiple identities over the years: founder of Silicon Valley, big donor to Trump, cryptocurrency supporter, democracy skeptic.

But Thiel also has a secret special identity – an FBI informant.

In the summer of 2021, Insider learned that Thiel began working as a "Confidential Human Source" (CHS) to provide information to Johnathan Buma, an FBI agent in Los Angeles investigating political corruption and foreign influence.

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

Johnson's account was confirmed by a person familiar with Thiel's relationship with the FBI, who told Insider that Johnson facilitated the relationship between Thiel and Buma. Insider confirmed through another source that the FBI had added Thiel to its official roster of registered informants.

Another source close to Thiel told Insider that while they couldn't confirm if Thiel was CHS, Thiel did speak to Buma occasionally. Any help Thiel may provide to the FBI should be understood as part of the reason for Thiel's growing estrangement from Trump and the broader MAGA movement, which has been strongly 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 monitor organized crime, terrorist threats, extremist organizations, and other criminal and intelligence targets. According to the Bureau's Confidential HR Policy Guide, these sources are more than just occasional whistleblowers.

The guidelines show that confidential human resources "have a relationship with the FBI that will forever affect that person's life"; "(They) will become an 'FBI source' or a 'former FBI source,' and in turn, his or her conduct or misconduct will be reflected in the FBI." Therefore, according to the policy, the process of recruiting and maintaining such sources is highly regulated and requires multiple layers of approval. Only those that can provide "valuable information ... Regularly available" talent is granted CHS status.

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

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

Thiel did not respond to multiple requests for comment. After being told that Insider was reporting on Thiel's relationship with the FBI, a Thiel spokesperson stopped responding.

The FBI's National Press Office and Scott Horton, Johnathan Buma's attorney, declined to comment.

There are no reports on political relations

Thiel is a citizen of Germany, the United States and New Zealand; As of last year, he was reportedly applying for a Maltese passport. In 2016, he donated $1.25 million to Trump's campaign and endorsed him at the Republican National Convention. After Trump won the election, Thiel served on his transition team.

Johnson, who said he was also an informant for Buma, told Insider that he believed Thiel's reporting to the FBI was largely limited to foreign contacts and foreign governments trying to infiltrate Silicon Valley. Thiel has publicly called on the FBI to investigate Google's ties to the Chinese government.

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

Many Thiel-funded politicians, including Trump, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, and former Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters, have repeatedly attacked the Bureau and its leadership in public. In 2022, J.D. Vance's campaign and affiliated PAC received a combined $15 million in donations from Thiel, falsely claiming that the FBI illegally tapped Trump's phone. Vance accused the bureau of "harassing faithful Christians" and vowed to block all Joe Biden Justice Department nominees for Trump's prosecution. (Most of Thiel's donations came in early 2021, before Vance's campaign began and many of the false claims he made during the game.) ）

! [Or an FBI informant?] Demystifying the multiple identities of tech giant Peter Thiel] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-7f230462a9-ef616449c4-dd1a6f-69ad2a.webp)

While serving as an FBI informant, Thiel funded the campaign of current Ohio Sen. JD Vance. Vance made some false and disparaging claims about the FBI. Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty

Masters' campaign received $20 million in support from Thiel, who backed a false conspiracy theory that the January 6, 2021 riot was instigated by FBI undercover agents and accused FBI agents who executed the Mar-a-Lago search warrant of "hunting down President Trump because they hate him." (Like Vance, much of Thiel's donation to Masters came before Masters made its most inflammatory and baseless remarks later in the campaign.) )

Thiel reportedly plans to sit on the sidelines during the 2024 election. None of Trump, Masters nor Vance responded to requests for comment.

Do business with the FBI

Some of Thiel's business interests rely on the FBI and other government agencies as potential revenue streams. He retains a 10 percent stake in Palantir, a data company that has sold more than a billion dollars in software and related services to the federal government, including the Pentagon, CIA, NSA and FBI. A financial analyst said the $250 million contract with the U.S. military in September added evidence that Palantir was essentially "a government service provider." Last year, Forbes reported that Thiel also backed Boldend, a spyware company that positioned itself as a competitor to Israel's NSO group. The FBI purchased and tested NSO's products.

(Mithril Capital, another entity co-founded by Thiel, reportedly became the subject of FBI attention in 2019, though the investigation did not appear to produce any results.) The co-founder of Mithril did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The F.B.I. did not respond to questions about Mithril. )

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

Johnson claimed to be an FBI informant in a lawsuit he filed against Clearview's founders. He told Insider that he recruited Thiel as CHS and introduced him to Buma, Johnson's FBI agent handler.

! [Or an FBI informant?] Demystifying the multiple identities of tech giant Peter Thiel] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-7f230462a9-e21e77ac28-dd1a6f-69ad2a.webp)

Charles Johnson (left) with Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) and Gaetz's current wife, Ginger Gaetz (center), in 2021. Johnson told Insider that he facilitated contact between Thiel and the FBI agents who would be his handlers. Photo by Charles Johnson

It's unclear if Thiel is still the FBI's CHS. Johnson told Insider he believed the relationship had been severed but declined to provide details; In his statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee, Buma wrote that he was ordered to terminate contact with all sources at the end of 2022.

Johnson's relationship with Trump and Thiel is well documented. But he is also a self-described "mischief" with a history of spreading false information and denigrating competitors. In this case, his claims were confirmed by two other sources, supported in part by a third source, who said that Thiel and Buma occasionally talked.

"Join or be crushed"

Buma appeared as a whistleblower in August, saying Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr had suppressed his efforts to determine whether Rudy Giuliani was hampered by Russian assets. Insider was the first news organization to report his claims.

In a statement prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee, Buma noted that FBI headquarters shut down his most valuable human sources, including a man codenamed "Genius," who reported far-right figures linked to the planned 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" through two additional sources. The statement made no mention of Thiel.

! [Or an FBI informant?] Demystifying the multiple identities of tech giant Peter Thiel] (https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-7f230462a9-ada1422483-dd1a6f-69ad2a.webp)

Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He contributed $1.25 million to Trump's campaign in 2016. He supported congressional candidates in 2020 and 2022 who aligned themselves with MAGA's position. He said he will remain neutral in the 2024 presidential race. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty

In a written statement to Insider, Ohnson said he stood up as CHS to support Buma's efforts as a whistleblower in order to advance what Buma sees as needed to reform the way the FBI handles informants. Johnson said he exposed Thiel's job as CHS to avenge what he saw as a wrong decision by the Founders Fund.

Johnson also told Insider that he felt betrayed because Thiel didn't invest in Johnson's own startup, which he expected Thiel to do for him to introduce Buma to him. Johnson said he told Thiel that he could demonstrate his loyalty to the United States by providing the FBI with a window of contact with foreign governments.

He described Thiel's motivation for working with Buma, a hedge in an environment where extravagant wealth no longer provided the security of the past. He referred to ProPublica's death over Thiel's income tax evasion and the death of Jeffrey Epstein, who had arranged several meetings with Thiel.

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

The FBI recruited Thiel as CHS, making him one of the bureau's most prominent assets, but he wasn't the only right-wing figure working with the bureau. Trump himself offered to help the FBI fight organized crime in Atlantic City in the early 1980s. Truth Social, a Trump-owned social media company, quietly informed the FBI about users who threatened violence, even as it tried to profit from their anger.

At least two of the Jan. 6 rioters who broke into Capitol Hill were also informants for the FBI, like Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys who was sentenced to 22 years in prison for violations on Capitol Hill. Tarrio reportedly provided sources for federal and local law enforcement, assisting in the prosecution of more than a dozen people.

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