House Republicans are seeking information and documents from the 51 former intelligence officials who signed an October 2020 letter baselessly claiming Russian involvement in the Hunter Biden laptop stories amid greater scrutiny of their decision to inject themselves into the final stretch of the 2020 election.
Their request comes as the laptop controversy has burst back into public view a year and a half after the New York Post published emails belonging to now-President Joe Biden’s son. The New York Times and the Washington Post joined a number of right-leaning outlets that confirmed the authenticity of emails on the laptop. The former intelligence officials are largely remaining silent, though some have continued to defend their signatures, while a few recently returned to government service.
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House Judiciary Committee Republicans, led by Rep. Jim Jordan, sent letters to each signatory, asking them to “identify all people with whom you communicated about the inception, drafting, editing, signing, publishing, or promotion” of the ex-intelligence officials’ letter and directing them to “produce all documents and communications referring or relating to” the public statement. The GOP asked the former intelligence officials to hand over the materials by April 20.
The ex-intelligence officials’ letter was first published by Politico. The news outlet said Nick Shapiro, a longtime aide to Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan, provided the CIA with the letter and told the outlet, “The real power here … is the number of former, working-level IC officers who want the American people to know that once again the Russians are interfering.” Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior operations officer at the CIA, told National Review he and former acting CIA Director Mike Morell kind of put it [the letter] together.”
Despite offering no proof, Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign, along with many in the media, dismissed the laptop story as a Russian disinformation operation. The president called the story a Russian operation during one of the 2020 presidential debates with then-President Donald Trump.
Biden claimed, “There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said this is, has all the — four, five former heads of the CIA. Both parties say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage.”
JOE BIDEN CONFIDENT HUNTER BIDEN DIDN’T BREAK THE LAW
The future president was referring to the Politico report about the letter in an article titled “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” The headline was misleading because the letter never directly called the story Russian “disinformation.”
The letter hedged a bit at various times, noting, “We do not have evidence of Russian involvement.” But it added, “Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.” The letter argued, “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election,” and expresses the “view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue.”
“Why was there all this collusion between Big Tech, big media, the Democrat Party, and 51 intelligence officials to keep this story from the American people just days before the presidential election?” Jordan said in an interview with the Washington Examiner this week. “That question I think I have an answer for, which is simple politics.”
David Buckley, a former CIA inspector general who signed the infamous laptop letter, is now the staff director for the Democratic-led House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
Jeremy Bash, another signatory and former chief of staff for former CIA Director Leon Panetta, was appointed by the Democratic chairman of the House Armed Services Committee last week to join the Afghanistan War Commission.
John Sipher, a 28-year CIA veteran who also signed the letter, tweeted last month he was proud to have played his part in influencing the election for Biden, and he claimed he was being sarcastic. Former Attorney General William Barr said the letter “probably affected” 2020’s outcome.
The Republicans told the former intelligence officials, “You signed a public statement attempting to discredit the contents of the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden,” and argued that the letter “emphasized the national security credentials of you and the other signatories, implying that the assertions and conclusions in the statement were grounded in information unavailable to other Americans.” The GOP said, “Your public statement was consistent with a broader effort to minimize and censor the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden and the Biden family.”
Republicans argued the letter “served as a basis for Democrat operatives to try to delegitimize the scandalous allegations about Hunter Biden and the Biden family,” and they pointed to White House press secretary Jen Psaki immediately sharing the Politico story calling the laptop stories Russian disinformation. Jordan and the others noted, “the Biden campaign repeatedly cited your statement to dismiss the allegations against Hunter Biden.”
When asked if the president stood by his Russian disinformation claims last month, Psaki dodged, pointing reporters to the Justice Department and to Hunter Biden’s lawyers.
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Twitter and Facebook both restricted access to the New York Post’s story in the heat of the election. Twitter locked the New York Post’s account and blocked the ability to share the story, while Facebook also limited the story’s spread. Republicans argued, “These efforts likely affected public awareness of the serious allegations surrounding the Biden family in the crucial weeks before the 2020 election.”
“At best, the public statement was a reckless attempt by you and your co-signatories to erroneously opine about purported election interference,” the House Judiciary GOP said. “At worse — and more likely — the public statement was a deliberate and coordinated effort to mislead the American people about information relevant to the 2020 presidential election by invoking your national security experience to falsely suggest that the allegations about Hunter Biden were not based in fact.”
Then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said in October 2020 there was “no intelligence” to support that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
