In the final weeks of the 2020 presidential campaign, 51 former top intelligence officials signed a letter saying the alleged contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop “have all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation.”
The statement was allegedly designed to help Joe Biden’s presidential bid, and its promotion was coordinated by the Biden campaign, according to an interim report by the GOP-led House Judiciary and Intelligence Committee.
The 64-page report reviewed by CBS News said House investigators wrote to 51 former officials requesting “relevant documents and testimony.” The report includes part of witness interviews, as well as part of emails.
Reports say that emails from former intelligence officials, including former acting CIA director Michael Morell, a former CBS News contributor, show the statement was meant to help candidate Biden in the final weeks of the 2020 campaign, after the New York Post first reported on the alleged contents of his son’s laptop. The information came to the computer a Delaware computer repair shop ownerwho then turned it over to federal investigators and a lawyer for Trump ally Rudy Giuliani.
According to the GOP report, “contemporaneous emails show the organizers’ intent in drafting and releasing the statement: ‘(W)e think Trump will attack Biden on this issue in this week’s debate, and we want perspective on this issue from Russia watchers and other seasoned experts, And we want (the vice president) to have a word to use in response.'”
During the debate on October 22, 2020, in response to Trump’s “it’s a hell of a laptop, hell of a laptop,” Mr. Biden pushed back, saying, “There are 50 former national intelligence people who said what this is — a Russian plan that he’s accusing me of — they said. That it has all the features — four or five former heads of the CIA — on both sides saying what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. No one believes it except him … and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”
The interim report accused the Biden campaign of “taking active steps to deny allegations about Hunter Biden by exploiting the national security credentials of former intelligence officials” and also said the “Biden campaign coordinated the release of statements to members of the media.”
Committee investigators also claimed they had evidence that a current CIA employee “helped obtain signatories to the statement.”
They said a former CIA analyst who signed the letter told the committee that a CIA employee affiliated with the agency’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (“PCRB”) told him about the statement over the phone and asked if he would sign it.
Separately, Morell, according to the report, told a CIA pre-publication review board that ”
At the time, House Democrats released what they described as more of Morrell’s interview, claiming that Republicans had “cherry-picked quotes to smear Secretary Blinken.” According to a portion of the interview released by committee Democrats in April, Morrell was asked what? Blinken, when he called Morell, “did he instruct, suggest or instruct you to write a letter or a statement about the laptop?” Morell responded, “My recollection is that he didn’t, my recollection is that he asked me That’s what I thought.”
The committee pressed him, “It wasn’t — the campaign might be of some help with that — could you … cook up something we could use?” “That’s not my recollection of what he said,” Morell responded.
House Republicans said the Biden administration “refused to cooperate with this oversight.” The CIA has so far “failed to comply” and Blinken “has not provided any of the documents requested by the committee.” adding that “although he (Blinken) denied asking Morell to write the statement, Secretary Blinken did not dispute that his communication was the motivation for the statement.”
In response to questions from CBS, a CIA spokesperson said, “The House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) has investigated multiple (Intelligence Community (IC)) elements regarding the signatories of public statements and (Office of the Director of National) Intelligence (ODNI)) parties to the IC. from provided initial feedback to HPSCI. CIA contributed to ODNI response.”
The CIA also said it had “provided requested information” to the chairmen of the Intelligence and Judiciary Committees. Morell did not respond to questions from CBS News, but according to a partial transcript released by the GOP committee, Morell testified, “I did not coordinate with the CIA. I would have known — if I had known (about an employee connected to the CIA) that the signature might have been privileged. ), I would have reacted very negatively to it.”
In response to questions from CBS, White House spokesman for oversight and investigations Ian Sams said, “Instead of working with President Biden on the issues most important to the American people, House Republicans are weaponizing their energy to go after their political opponents and re-litigate the 2020 election with misleading claims.” Do. This is happening as they move forward with dangerous plans to push America into default and economic crisis.”
There was no immediate comment from the State Department.
Rebecca Kaplan contributed to this report.
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