Republicans condemned new information exposed by the Washington Examiner that ex-intelligence leaders sought to give then-candidate Joe Biden a “talking point” in his critical 2020 debate with Donald Trump when they signed onto a letter discrediting stories about Hunter Biden’s laptop.
On Thursday, the Washington Examiner revealed that Mike Morell, former deputy director of the CIA, sent a recruitment email, along with a draft of the letter, to intelligence officials days ahead of the second presidential debate between Biden and Trump.
In the letter, Morell admitted that one purpose of the letter, which was published Oct. 19, 2020, was to give Biden an opportunity to rebut Trump should a discussion about the “laptop from hell” come up.
Rep. James Comer (R-KY), who is leading an investigation into the Biden family’s finances and this week subpoenaed FBI Director Christopher Wray for records describing an alleged “criminal scheme,” called the Washington Examiner’s revelations “outrageous.”
“It’s outrageous that former intelligence officials deliberately chose to spread disinformation to help Joe Biden’s presidential bid,” Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “The signers of the 2020 letter severely tarnished the intelligence community’s reputation and it was a steep price to pay to help Joe Biden. House Republicans will continue working to expose this dirty campaign trick and ensure accountability for the American people.”
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), who along with Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has conducted a yearslong investigation into Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings and accused Secretary of State Antony Blinken of providing false testimony on his email contact with Hunter Biden, was also outraged by the Washington Examiner’s findings about the motivation behind the letter.
“The evidence that is accumulating regarding the origin and partisan goal of the fraudulent letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials to ‘debunk’ Hunter Biden’s laptop is quite damning,” Johnson told the Washington Examiner on Friday. “Hopefully, the legacy media will start honestly reporting on it so the public will come to comprehend the depth and pervasiveness of the deep state. I’m not holding my breath.”
After the Washington Examiner published its story on Thursday, other outlets revealed a separate “talking point” email that Morell, a former acting CIA director under former President Barack Obama, sent to John Brennan, Obama’s final CIA director, the morning of Oct. 19, hours before the letter was published that evening by Politico in a story titled, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”
More than 50 ex-intelligence officials signed the laptop letter that helped contribute to the baseless narrative that the Hunter Biden laptop contents exposed by the New York Post were nothing more than Russian disinformation.
The revelations come on the heels of news that Morell testified to the House that Blinken “triggered” him to write the October 2020 laptop letter and he organized the letter in part to help Joe Biden “to win the election” against Trump.
Morell’s testimony was revealed in a letter sent to Blinken late last month by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. The duo has been interviewing laptop letter signatories, including Morell, and Brennan is slated to testify in front of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government chaired by Jordan on May 11.
“We now know that the Hunter Biden ‘intel’ officials letter was drafted to help give Joe Biden a ‘talking point’ in his debate against President Trump,” Jordan tweeted on Friday in response to the Washington Examiner’s scoop. “But during the debate, Biden acted like the letter was completely organic.”
Morell told House investigators that prior to his Oct. 17 phone call with Blinken, he had no intention to write the laptop letter, and testified “yes” and “absolutely” when asked if the call with Blinken, who was then a top advisor for Biden’s 2020 campaign, was what “triggered that intent in you.” Morell surmised that Blinken wanted information out that “the Russians were somehow involved.”
Joe Biden referenced the laptop letter during the Oct. 22 debate after Trump referenced Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings tied to Ukraine and China.
“There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics — four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage,” Joe Biden said.
Trump replied, “You mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax?” Joe Biden replied: “That’s exactly what we’re told.” Trump lamented, “Here we go again with Russia.” The debate moderator then moved on.
House Republicans said Morell received a call from then-Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti after the presidential debate to thank him for “putting the statement out.” Richetti now works in the Biden White House.
Konstantinos “Gus” Dimitrelos, a cyber forensics expert and former Secret Service agent, conducted an examination of the laptop for the Washington Examiner last year, concluding that “my analysis revealed there is a 100% certainty that Robert Hunter Biden was the only person responsible for the activity on this hard drive and all of its stored data” and that “the hard drive is authentic.”
What does it say about an individual who thinks a lie is a “debate talking point”?
It says his entire career is built on lies. He’s got nothing of substance.
No doubt the incompetent Blinken got his job as Secretary of State because he did this “favor” for crooked Joe.
“Hopefully, the legacy media will start honestly reporting on it…” Seriously? Don’t count on it. You’ve heard “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire”? Well this is a deep state INFERNO! I just hope the leftists get burned good.
There you go. Arrest them for lying under Oath. Or leave it to the vigilante groups to dirt nap them, and be done with all the treason.
You knw with all these emails popping up. It sounds like sombody has this laptop handy. lol If someone knws more pls let me knw. Im kinda tired of these Cliffhangers we kept gettn thrown an the same people whether Liberal or Conservative keep askn for DONATIONS. lol Its really not funny when the country seem s to be doin very poorly wi this Regime we are contending with. An like I said earlier. I googled the legal voters for the 2020 election. There were around 136 million on the ballot that were legally signed to vote. The liberal media even said Trump got around 75 million votes. So yall can do the math an google also. Just a thought of whats goin on.