Secretary of State Antony Blinken has been silent on whether he regrets his actions, which allegedly helped discredit Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and encouraged conduct that was later used as evidence in his federal trial and led to his conviction.
Blinken’s relationship with Biden came into the spotlight last year after former CIA deputy director Michael Morell testified before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees, according to a Fox News Digital investigation.
Morell testified that Blinken, then a senior adviser to President Biden’s campaign, “played a role in originating” a public statement signed by intelligence officials alleging that the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned just weeks before the 2020 presidential election was part of a Russian disinformation operation.
“During his recorded interview, Mr. Morell testified that he contacted him on or about October 17, 2020 to discuss the subject of Hunter Biden’s laptop,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) wrote to Mr. Blinken last year as their committees were investigating the origins of a letter from 51 former intelligence officials that was published in Politico. The letter warned that the laptop, first reported by the New York Post, “bears all the classic hallmarks of Russian disinformation.”
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On the left is Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and on the right is Hunter Biden. (Getty Images)
“According to Mr. Morell, your outreach was described as simply gathering Mr. Morell’s response to the Washington Post article, but it set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.”
“Morrell further explained that one of the two purposes for making the statement was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debates and to help him win the election,” they wrote. “Based on Morrell’s testimony, it is clear that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origination of the statement, the effect of which was to silence the Hunter Biden story and impede the American people from making an informed decision in the 2020 presidential election.”
Three days after the former intelligence officials’ letter was made public, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden used it as a talking point during the final 2020 presidential debate, refuting criticism from then-President Trump.
Over the next few years, numerous media outlets confirmed the New York Post’s report that the laptop was authentic, and the federal government used it as evidence in Biden’s recent gun crimes trial, in which he was convicted of all charges.
Fox News Digital recently contacted all of the former intelligence officials who signed the letter, and while most of them declined to comment, several reaffirmed their involvement.
Moreover, emails from the infamous abandoned laptop that Blinken tried to discredit showed that Biden had a friendly personal relationship with Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, going back more than a decade, that Biden served on the board of directors of the company Burisma, and that Blinken had scheduled a meeting with Biden when he was deputy secretary of state.
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Social media users have been voicing their opinions on Hunter Biden’s conviction on firearms-related charges. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
In a May 22, 2015 email, Biden scheduled a meeting with Deputy Secretary of State Blinken to seek his “advice” on several issues, but the meeting appears to have been postponed until July 2015 due to the death of Biden’s brother, Beau, in late May 2015.
Antony Blinken sent an email to Hunter Biden on May 22, 2015. (Fox News)
May 22, 2015 email between Hunter Biden and State Department Advisor Antony Blinken. (Fox News)
A few months later, on July 21, Biden’s aide, Joan Meyer, emailed Biden his weekly schedule, which included a meeting with Blinken scheduled for the following day.
“12:00-1:30 Lunch with Tony Blinken (Department of State),” Hunter’s schedule read. “Enter through the main entrance (“Diplomatic Entrance”) at 22nd & C St, NW. Proceed to the reception area where Kenny Matthews will be waiting to escort you to Tony’s office.”
“12:00-1:30 Lunch with Tony Blinken (State Department),” Hunter Biden’s schedule for July 22, 2015 read. “Enter through the main entrance (“Diplomatic Entrance”) at 22nd & C St, NW. Proceed to the reception area where Kenny Matthews will be waiting to escort you to Tony’s office.” (Fox News)
In another email after the meeting, Blinken told Biden he was pleased to “see” him and “catch up” and joked that women in his office found Biden “easy on the eyes.”
“You’re going to love this,” Antony Blinken wrote to Hunter Biden on July 22, 2015. “After you left, Marjorie (former assistant to Colin Powell), a wonderful African-American woman who sits in my outside office, said to me, ‘He’s really easy on the eyes.’ Tell that to your wife, Tony.” (Fox News)
“Tell that to your wife,” Blinken joked.
Fox News Digital could not verify the content of the meeting, and the State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Blinken has previously denied having any role in crafting the letter from the former intelligence official and has stressed that he is “not in politics,” despite decades of political donations and campaigning. Blinken and his wife have donated roughly $70,000 to Democrats over the past several decades.
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Blinken also said the letter was “not my idea” and “was not requested or required.”
According to multiple profile articles over the past few years, Blinken has advised Biden on matters beyond foreign policy, drawing on the president’s decades-long friendship and confidantship. Senator Chris Coons (D-Delaware), Biden’s reelection campaign co-chairman, told CNN in 2021 that Blinken “has been part of Joe’s evolution, his learning, his change as he’s faced one challenge after another over the decades,” and that he is “an invaluable member of Joe Biden’s core team.”
“President Biden is personally close to both Tony Blinken and Evan Ryan, and Tony has been an incredibly loyal, capable and effective adviser, staffer and personal friend — a rarity in Washington,” Coons added.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
