Current and former U.S. intelligence officials who co-signed a letter before the 2020 presidential election with the intent of discrediting reporting on a laptop that belonged to Hunter Biden, the son of then-Democratic nominee Joe Biden, are being called to speak to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
Those who signed the Oct. 19, 2020, letter suggesting the revelations from the laptop were Russian disinformation have declined to address their motives for doing so.
Many believe the document was part of a successful campaign to muddy the waters and alter the outcome of the election two weeks later.
Among other things, the reporting about the laptop, largely by the New York Post, indicated Joe Biden’s possible involvement in his son’s business dealings in Ukraine, which he had long denied.
In the letter, the intelligence officials said they had no solid evidence but rather were “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role” in the reporting.
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“If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this,” they wrote.
Almost two years after the Post was suppressed from sharing its initial reporting about the laptop on social media, the establishment media finally came around and verified the hard drive’s authenticity.
House Republicans now want many of those who portrayed the Post’s reporting as disinformation to appear before the Intelligence Committee as well as the House Judiciary Committee for transcribed interviews.
The Daily Caller reported Wednesday that House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner had sent letters to 29 individuals previously affiliated with the CIA who signed the letter that categorized the Post’s reporting as disinformation.
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Messages sent to those individuals were succinct. Each person was asked to “comply promptly.”
“The Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are conducting oversight of federal law-enforcement and intelligence matters within our respective jurisdictions,” the letters said.
They continued, “The Judiciary Committee made a prior request to you for documents and information about the public statement you signed in October 2020 that falsely implied the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden was the product of Russian disinformation.”
Each person who was contacted by Jordan and Turner was reminded he or she had ignored prior requests for an interview.
“You have been on notice about our oversight request—and aware the request is outstanding—for months,” the letters noted. “For your convenience, we have attached the letter from the Judiciary Committee dated April 6, 2022. To date, you have not complied with this request. Accordingly, we reiterate our requests and ask that you comply promptly.”
“As we begin the 118th Congress, we write again to reiterate our outstanding request and ask that you immediately comply in full,” the letters concluded.
Fifty-one people in total signed the letter that warned Hunter Biden’s leaked emails, which appeared to show corruption in the Biden family, were part of a Russian operation.
One of those people admitted in January he suspected the laptop and its contents were authentic when he signed the letter.
Douglas Wise, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, told The Australian, “All of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible.”
