Fifty-one former US intelligence officials who slandered The Washington Post’s explosive report on Hunter Biden’s laptop as “Russian disinformation” in a 2020 letter are sticking to their decision even after the FBI and Department of Justice confirmed its veracity, with some calling it “patriotic,” a new report says.
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta, former CIA intelligence directors, and other analysts and officials have all said they do not regret their involvement in the “Lying Spies” dossier. Fox News reported on monday.
Asked if he thought he had acted too hastily in signing the letter, Clapper said “no” and that he had no plans to remove his name.
Fox News contacted all the other signatories, who either offered similar defenses or declined to comment.
“Many continue to make calculated or deeply ignorant interpretations of the letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials in October 2020 regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Mark S. Zaid, an attorney for the seven other signatories, said in a statement to The Washington Post that was first provided to Fox.
“A careful and objective reading of this document reveals that its contents remain accurate today,” added Zaid, who also represents former CIA officials Ronald Marks, Mark Polymeropoulos, Emil Nakhreh, Paul Kolbe, John Cypher and Gerald O’Shea, as well as former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency Douglas Wise.
“This was simply a warning letter to what we have known for decades: that some foreign governments, including Russia, continue to actively seek to interfere in our internal affairs and we must remain vigilant,” Zaid said. “Every patriotic American should have signed that letter.”
The report comes as special counsel David Weiss’ prosecution of Hunter Biden on gun crimes and tax evasion charges continues this week, after both the FBI and Department of Justice confirmed the authenticity of the laptop’s contents in court documents and proceedings this year.
Panetta defended the letter in an interview with CNN last July, saying he had “no” hesitation about signing onto the dubious claims about the origins of the so-called “Laptop from Hell.”
“I signed that letter for one reason only: to let the American people know that Russia is intentionally conducting a disinformation campaign inside the United States to try to influence our election and to affect our ability to have a free and fair election,” Trump told CNN’s Caitlin Collins.
“This is very old news,” Greg Treverton, who served as chairman of the National Intelligence Council, also told Fox News. “What we said is true. We made an educated guess, and it certainly looked like a Russian operation. Of course we did not and could not say it was a Russian operation. I have nothing more to say.”
The Washington Post contacted 51 former intelligence officials in March 2022 but received similarly vague responses.
Two of the letter’s signatories, former senior CIA intelligence officers Patty Brandmeyer and Brett Davis, died in 2023.
At Hunter’s federal firearms trial in Wilmington court last week, FBI Special Agent Erica Jensen reviewed the contents of the laptop and said data from the hard drive had been matched to the 54-year-old’s eldest son’s Apple iCloud account under subpoena.
When the FBI first released its report on October 14, 2020, it even told Twitter content moderators that emails from the laptop reported by The Washington Post revealing Hunter had used his father’s public profile to make millions of dollars from foreign entities were genuine.
The IRS “verified” the devices’ authenticity before seizing them in November 2019, and federal computer experts subsequently assessed them to have “not been manipulated in any way,” IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley said in congressional testimony last year.
Published by Politico First article on the letter denying the authenticity of the laptop On October 19, 2020, an article titled “Dozens of former intelligence officials say Hunter Biden story is Russian disinformation” was posted and has yet to be corrected.
“With regard to the Politico article, if I had represented my client at the time, I certainly would have asked for the headline to be revised because it asserted too categorically and broadly a conclusion that was not stated in the letter,” Zaid told The Post.
The Post has reached out to Politico for comment.
Hunter Biden’s lawyers confirmed in February that he left his laptop at a computer repair shop in Delaware and claimed his personal information was “unlawfully” accessed by allies of former President Donald Trump.
The letter was compiled about four years ago by former acting CIA director Michael Morell and was “prompted” by a phone call with Antony Blinken, who was then a senior member of the Biden campaign and is now Secretary of State.
“[T]”Emails appearing in US political circles that appear to belong to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, many of which relate to his time serving on the board of directors of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, bear all the classic hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation,” the report said.
“While we do not know the authenticity of the emails provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and we have no evidence of Russian involvement, our experience leads us to deeply suspect that the Russian government played a significant role in this incident,” the letter continued.
“If we’re right, this represents an attempt by Russia to influence the American vote in this election, and we strongly believe Americans need to be aware of this.”
In an interview with Fox News last year, Blinken denied that he had requested the letter or that it was his “idea” and refused to answer whether it was “Russian disinformation.”
“In regards to that letter, it was not my idea, it was not my request, it was not my request, and I think the testimony given by former deputy CIA director Mike Morell bears that out,” he said in an interview with Fox’s Benjamin Hall.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
