A former top CIA official testified that now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the Biden campaign were behind the public letter which baselessly claimed – just weeks before the 2020 election – that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation. More than 50 intelligence officials signed the letter.
In sworn testimony before the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell revealed that Blinken, a senior advisor to the Biden campaign at the time, triggered the letter’s creation. Morell also testified that one of the reasons he assisted with the letter was to help Biden defeat Trump.
On Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, both Ohio Republicans, notified Blinken that they are “conducting oversight of federal law-enforcement and intelligence matters within our respective jurisdictions,” according to Fox News.
“We are examining that public statement signed by 51 former intelligence officials that falsely discredited a New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop as supposed Russian disinformation,” they wrote in a letter to Blinken. “As part of our oversight, we have learned that you played a role in the inception of this statement while serving as a Biden campaign advisor, and we therefore request your assistance with our oversight.”
Earlier this year, former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director Douglas Wise revealed he knew that Hunter Biden’s laptop “had to be real.” Wise was among more than 50 intelligence officials who signed the letter orchestrated by Blinken.
“All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible,” Wise stated, noting that the original letter included a disclaimer that the officials did not know definitively whether the laptop’s contents were genuine.
“I don’t regret signing it because the context is important,” he added. “Remember Giuliani had just been in Ukraine trying to dig up evidence on the Bidens and he met with a known Russian intelligence official. Russians or even ill-intended conservative elements could have planted stuff in there.”
