Flutterby™! : Peter Thiel: FBI informant

Eeenteresting: Business Insider — Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant

The FBI maintains a vast network of informants to keep tabs on organized crime, terrorist threats, extremist groups, and other criminal and intelligence targets. These sources, according to the bureau's Confidential Human Source Policy Guide, are more than casual tipsters. 

Confidential human sources enter "into a relationship with the FBI, and that relationship will forever affect the life of that individual," the guide says. "[They] will be either an 'FBI source' or a 'former FBI source' and, in turn, his or her conduct or misconduct will reflect upon the FBI." As such, the process for recruiting and maintaining such sources is highly regulated, requiring multiple layers of approval. Only people who are able to provide "valuable information … on a recurring basis" are granted CHS status, according to the policy.

So the interesting question here, especially in light of Thiel's support of insurrectionist apologists like J.D. Vance and Blake Masters, both of whom have repeatedly denigrated the FBI, is who's using whom?