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Billionaire investor Peter Thiel's other identity as an FBI informant was outed by Charles Johnson, his longtime associate and a notorious alt-right political activist, as reported by the Insider. Though Insider learned of Peter’s FBI informant status in 2021, the bombshell report was only published on Thursday, October 19, 2023.
Charles, who is an informant himself, initially introduced Peter to Jonathan Buma, an FBI agent based in Los Angeles who investigates foreign influence campaigns and political corruption.
Following Charles’ introduction, Peter was allegedly added to the FBI’s official database of CHS (Confidential Human Source) informants. Charles told Insider that he revealed Peter’s informant status because he felt betrayed by the venture capitalist as he refused to invest in Charles’ startups.
Peter had been a major Trump supporter who also made a donation to the former US President’s election campaign. In 2021, Peter started sharing information with Jonathan Buma. However, Charles Johnson told Insider that Peter was advised by the FBI not to report anything involving Donald Trump or other political figures.
Charles told the outlet that he believed Peter’s reporting to the Federal Bureau of Investigation was largely limited to foreign governments’ attempts to invade Silicon Valley. It was Peter Thiel who urged the bureau to investigate Google’s relationship with the Chinese government.
Charles Johnson has triggered other controversies aside from Peter Thiel
Charles Johnson, who described himself as an investigative journalist, is often referred to as an internet troll due to his repeated involvement in spreading multiple inaccurate and false news stories. He owned several news websites including WeSearchr.com, Freestartr.com, and GotNews.com, all of which had been shut down for proliferating conspiracy theories.
In 2017, he made a Reddit post where he referred to the number of Holocaust victims and said that he did not and would never believe the six million figure. Charles further expressed his corroboration with David Cole, another Holocaust denier, who claimed that the Auschwitz concentration camp and the gas chambers were not real.
In another instance from December 2017, Charles Johnson announced on Facebook that he and right-wing social media personality Michael Cernovich were about to end a U.S. Senator's career. Charles claimed that he uncovered a s**ual harassment lawsuit against New York-based Senator Chuck Schumer—a lawsuit that was later proved to be forged.
Moreover, the statements in the fraudulent lawsuit were copied word for word from a real s**ual harassment complaint that was filed against former Rep. John Conyers.
In the same year, Charles' website GotNews, as well as many other right-wing websites, falsely accused a man from Michigan of a car attack that injured and killed anti-racist protesters in Virginia's Charlottesville.
Following these reports, the Michigan man was harassed and subjected to several death threats. Charles Johnson was among the individual defendants who were sued by the Michigan man for defamation. In June 2018, Charles and his website agreed to pay $29,000 to settle the case.
Charles Johnson had taken part in spreading multiple other false news stories. However, his outing of Peter Thiel was confirmed by a source who reportedly had knowledge of Peter's connection to the FBI.
Peter Thiel decided to be on the sidelines of the 2024 presidential election
Being an informant for the FBI for a long time would put Peter at odds with certain parts of the Republican Party that have grown hostile to the bureau amid its investigations of Donald Trump.
However, Peter stepped down from politics during the presidential election campaign for 2024, allegedly because he felt that the right-wingers were more absorbed in the domestic cultural war within the United States than the country’s economic competitiveness.
Peter Thiel and the FBI have yet to address the bombshell report.
