Or an FBI informant? Revealing the multiple identities of tech giant Peter Thiel
Original title: Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant
Original author: Mattathias Schwartz, Business Insider
Original compilation: Rhythm Workers, BlockBeats
Peter Thiel has worn many hats over the years: Silicon Valley founder, Trump mega-donor, cryptocurrency supporter, democracy skeptic.
But Thiel also has a secret special identity - an FBI informant.
Insider learned that in the summer of 2021, Thiel began working as a Confidential Human Source (CHS) to provide information to Johnathan Buma, an FBI agent in Los Angeles who specializes in investigating political corruption and foreign influence activities.
Charles Johnson, a longtime Thiel associate and a notorious figure in the decade-long far-right movement Thiel funded, told Insider in a statement that he helped recruit the billionaire by introducing him to Buma as informant.
A source familiar with Thiels relationship with the FBI corroborated Johnsons account, telling Insider that Johnson was the catalyst for the relationship between Thiel and Buma. Insider confirmed through another source that the FBI has added Thiel to its official roster of registered informants.
Another source close to Thiel told Insider that while they cant confirm whether Thiel is CHS, Thiel does occasionally speak with Buma. Any assistance Thiel may have provided to the FBI should be understood as part of Thiels growing distance from Trump and the broader MAGA movement, which has been highly critical of the FBI and other federal law enforcement agencies, sources said.
Provide valuable information regularly
The FBI maintains a vast network of informants to monitor organized crime, terrorist threats, extremist groups and other criminal and intelligence targets. These sources were more than just occasional whistleblowers, according to the bureaus Confidential Human Resources Policy Guidelines.
The guide states: Confidential human resources establish a relationship with the FBI that will forever impact that persons life; [They] will become an FBI source or a former FBI source, In turn, his or her actions or misconduct will reflect on the FBI. So according to the policy, the process of recruiting and maintaining such sources is highly regulated and requires multiple layers of approval. Only those who can provide valuable information... on a regular basis are granted CHS status.
President-elect Donald Trump shakes hands with Peter Thiel during a meeting at Trump Tower in December 2016. Years later, Thiel became a classified agent for the FBI. One associate said he was instructed not to report on his interactions with Trump or other U.S. politicians. Source: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
As CHS, Thiel was assigned a code name and an internal serial number to track his reports. The information he passed on about foreign contacts and Silicon Valley conspiracies was 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. Thiels spokesman stopped responding after being told Insider was reporting on Thiels ties to the FBI.
The FBIs national press office and Scott Horton, an attorney representing Johnathan Buma, declined to comment.
No reports of political ties
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 Trumps 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 Thiels 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 Googles relationship with the Chinese government.
Johnson said Thiel was instructed by the FBI not to report on his interactions with Trump or other U.S. political figures.
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. Vances campaign and affiliated PACs received a total of $15 million in donations from Thiel, falsely claiming that the FBI illegally tapped Trumps phones. Vance accused the bureau of harassing faithful Christians and vowed to block all Joe Biden Justice Department nominees over Trumps prosecution. (Most of Thiels donations occurred in early 2021, before Vances campaign began and the many false claims he made during the race.)
While working as an FBI informant, Thiel funded the campaign of current Ohio Senator J.D. Vance. Vance made several false and disparaging claims about the FBI. Photo credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty
Masters, whose campaign received $20 million in support from Thiel, has embraced a false conspiracy theory that the Jan. 6, 2021, riots were incited by undercover FBI agents and blamed the execution of Mar-a-Lago FBI agents on the search warrant are pursuing President Trump because they hate him. (Like Vance, most of Thiels donations to Masters occurred before Masters made some of his most inflammatory and baseless statements late in the campaign.)
Thiel reportedly plans to sit out during the 2024 election. Trump, Masters and Vance did not respond to requests for comment.
Doing business with the FBI
Part of Thiels business interests rely on the FBI and other government agencies as potential sources of revenue. He retains a 10% 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 a $250 million contract with the U.S. military signed in September adds to evidence that Palantir is essentially a government services provider. Last year, Forbes reported that Thiel also backed Boldend, a spyware company that positioned itself as a competitor to Israels NSO Group. The FBI purchased and tested NSOs products.
(Mithril Capital, another entity co-founded by Thiel, reportedly became a subject of FBI attention in 2019, although the investigation appeared to yield no results. Mithrils co-founders did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The FBI did not respond to questions about Mithrils matter. )
Johnson, who exposed Thiels ties to the FBI, is a technology investor and far-right firebrand with longstanding ties to Thiel and the MAGA network of 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 Trumps top staff during the 2017 transition.
Johnson claimed in his lawsuit against Clearviews founder that he was an FBI informant. He told Insider that he recruited Thiel to serve as CHS and introduced him to Buma, Johnsons FBI agent handler.
Charles Johnson (left) with Rep. Matt Gaetz (right) and Gaetzs current wife Ginger Gaetz (center) in 2021. Johnson told Insider that he facilitated contact between Thiel and the FBI agent who would become his handler. Source: Charles Johnson
It is unclear whether Thiel is still a CHS with the FBI. Johnson told Insider he believed the relationship had been severed but declined to provide details; Buma wrote in his statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee that he was ordered to terminate contact with all sources at the end of 2022.
Johnsons ties to Trump and Thiel are well-documented. But hes also a self-described prankster with a history of spreading false information and disparaging competitors. In this case, his account was corroborated by two other sources and partially supported by a third source who said Thiel and Buma spoke occasionally.
Either join or be crushed.
Buma emerged as a whistleblower in August, saying Trump and Attorney General Bill Barr 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 an individual codenamed Genius who reported on the incident on January 6, 2021. Far-right figures linked to Capitol attack plans. Johnson told Insider that Genius is his CHS code name. Insider was able to confirm Johnsons identity as Genius through two additional sources. The statement did not mention Thiel.
Thiel spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention. He donated $1.25 million to Trumps campaign in 2016. He has supported congressional candidates in 2020 and 2022 who align with MAGA. He said he would remain neutral in the 2024 presidential race. Photo credit: Alex Wong/Getty
In a written statement to Insider, Johnson said he came out as CHS to support Bumas efforts as a whistleblower in order to push for what Buma believes are needed reforms in the way the FBI handles informants. Johnson said he exposed Thiels work as CHS in retaliation for what he saw as poor decisions by Founders Fund, Thiels venture capital firm.
Johnson also told Insider that he felt betrayed because Thiel didnt invest in Johnsons own startup, which he had expected Thiel to do for introducing Buma to him. Johnson said he told Thiel he could demonstrate his loyalty to the United States by providing the FBI with a window into foreign governments.
He describes Thiels motivation for working with Buma as a hedge in an environment where the luxury of wealth no longer provides the security of the past. He pointed to ProPublicas story about Thiels income tax evasion and the death of Jeffrey Epstein, who arranged several meetings with Thiel.
I told him either join or get busted, Johnson said.
The FBI recruited Thiel into CHS, making him one of the bureaus most prominent assets, but he wasnt the only right-wing figure working with the bureau. Trump himself proposed helping the FBI fight organized crime in Atlantic City in the early 1980s. Truth Social, the Trump-owned social media company, quietly notified the FBI of users who threatened violence even as it sought to profit from their anger.
At least two of the rioters who stormed 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 Capitol Hill violations. Tarrio reportedly provided sources to federal and local law enforcement and assisted in the prosecution of more than a dozen individuals.
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