CIA HELPED get signatures for Hunter letter, Republicans claim

The CIA was actively involved in getting signatures for the letter from 51 intelligence officials discrediting Hunter Biden‘s laptop as disinformation, according to bombshell Republican report set to be released Wednesday.

The House Judiciary Committee is set to unveil a report titled: The Hunter Biden Statement: How Senior Intelligence Community Officials and the Biden Campaign Worked to Mislead American Voters. It alleges that the letter ‘was a political operation to help elect’ Joe Biden in November 2022.

It alleges that a CIA employee ‘may have helped in the effort to solicit signatures for the statement’ and accuses former Deputy CIA director and Acting CIA Director Mike Morell and the Biden campaign of conspiring to quickly get the letter approved.

The letter that was signed by 51 intel officials in 2020 falsely claimed that Hunter Biden’s laptop had all the ‘classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.’

The latest revelation in the probes into Hunter comes a day before Republicans on the Oversight Committee are set to give an update on the Biden family’s ‘shady’ business deals.

One signer of the statement, former CIA analyst David Cariens, ‘disclosed to the Committees that a CIA employee affiliated with the agency’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) informed him of the existence of the statement and asked if he would sign it,’ the House investigative report notes. 

The CIA employee allegedly ‘asked’ Cariens if he would sign the statement, to which he agreed. 

‘The Committees have requested additional material from the CIA, which has ignored the request to date,’ the report continues.

On October 19, 2020, Morell allegedly sent the CIA the final version of the letter to the Prepublication Classification Review for review and called it a ‘rush job’ so it could be approved.

The new report, which will be published Wednesday in conjunction with the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, also reveals that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper provided editorial advice to ‘strengthen the verbiage.’

On October 18, emails included in the report show Clapper emailing Morrell his intention to sign onto the letter. 

He also offered a key phrase to include, writing: ‘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.

Morrell replied that Clapper’s suggestion was accepted and ‘It was a good one.’

Morrell recently testified before the House Judiciary Committee that an Oct. 17 call with Biden’s current Secretary of State Antony Blinken had ‘absolutely’ triggered his interest in coordinating the letter.

However, Blinken insisted last week that he was not behind the infamous letter, insisting that he doesn’t ‘do politics.’

‘One of the great benefits of this job is that I don’t do politics, don’t engage in it,’ the secretary of State said. ‘But with regard to that letter -it wasn’t my idea, I didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it,’ Blinken said on Fox News.

At the time he was allegedly behind the letter Blinken was not secretary of state but a Biden campaign adviser.

Asked by Fox News on if he accepted the laptop’s legitimacy after most major news organizations have verified it, Blinken said he would not talk politics.

‘I’m not not engaging in politics. I’ve got a lot on my agenda. Some things that we just talked about, trying to help the Russian aggression against engaging with our allies, partners around the world and dealing with some of the challenges posed by China. We have a situation now in Sudan, this has fully occupied my time.’

Biden and his campaign at the time cited the letter to discredit Hunter Biden’s laptop as a ‘Russian disinformation campaign.’

The then-presidential candidate cited it during a debate with Trump just a few days after its publication on October 22, 2020 to deflect scrutiny of his son’s alleged foreign influence peddling schemes.

Then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said at the time that Hunter’s laptop was actually ‘not part of a Russian disinformation campaign’ and had made that clear to the FBI and the larger intelligence community. 

House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan and House Intelligence Committee Chair Mike Turner sent a letter to Blinken last week telling him that they were examining the letter.

‘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.’

The Biden campaign ‘took active measures to discredit the allegations about Hunter Biden by exploiting the national security credentials of former intelligence officials,’ the report also states.