A CIA official assisted in getting signatures for an October 2020 letter in which 51 former U.S. intelligence officials claimed information on the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation, a new congressional report said.
Former CIA analyst David Cariens, who signed the letter, told congressional investigators that a CIA employee affiliated with the agency’s Pre-Publication Classification Review Board (PCRB) informed him of the letter and asked if he would sign it, which he agreed to do, according to the report produced jointly by the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees.
The report, released on Wednesday, shows the effort to support Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign by discrediting the laptop computer story extended into the CIA. The report added that evidence showed officials actively working in the intelligence community should have known the laptop was authentic.
The letter was not an effort to stave off Russian meddling but a political operation in support of the Biden campaign, the report says.
The 2020 letter by the intel veterans falsely claimed that data retrieved from Hunter Biden‘s laptop, which was first reported by the New York Post, had the “classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Former acting CIA Director Mike Morell coordinated with the Biden campaign to find ex-intelligence officials to sign the letter, then sought approval from the CIA for the letter's publication and promotion through the media, according to the new congressional report.
On Oct. 19, 2020, Morell sent the CIA the final draft of the letter for the PCRB to review and requested a “rush job” for its approval, so it could be published before Biden debated Trump. It was.
During the debate, Biden brought up the letter to counter legitimate criticism of his family’s business practices, according to the report.
At the time, Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said that Hunter Biden’s laptop was “not part of a Russian disinformation campaign” and that the FBI and the intelligence community knew the information from the computer was authentic.
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Wednesday's congressional report also states that, on Oct.18, 2020, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper emailed Morell about his plan to become a signatory and suggested adding a key phrase to the letter, which Morell ultimately included.“I have one editorial suggestion for the letter: I think it would strengthen the verbiage if you say this has all the classic earmarks of a Soviet/Russian information operation rather than the ‘feel’ of a Russian operation,” Clapper wrote.
Asked about his role in the letter, Morell confirmed to Congress: “[T]here were two intentions here, right? One was to make clear to the American people that the Russians were interfering in the election, and the other was to help Vice President Biden in the debate.”
Asked why he and his fellow signatories to the now-infamous letter wanted to help Joe Biden, Morrel responded: “Because I wanted him to win the election.”
The National Pulse's Raheem Kassam noted: "The outright admission over the politicization of the U.S. national security apparatus is certain to rankle its chief figures in Washington, D.C., causing further concern over the legitimacy of the 2020 election itself, and questions over 2024."
During testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Morell said that his Oct. 17, 2020 call with Antony Blinken, who was then a top campaign adviser and now serves as secretary of state, had “absolutely” triggered him to draft the letter.
“There were two intents. One intent was to share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue; and, two, it was [to] help Vice President Biden,” Morell said.
Blinken has disputed Morell's account. He said he was not behind the letter.
“One of the great benefits of this job is that I don’t do politics, don’t engage in it,” Blinken said recently on Fox News. “But with regard to that letter - it wasn’t my idea, I didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it.”
Congressional investigators wrote to the CIA requesting documents relating to interactions between the agency and the letter’s signatories. The agency has not complied with the request.
The report is titled “How Senior Intelligence Community Officials and the Biden Campaign Worked to Mislead American Voters.”
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