Exclusive: Senate Republicans provide classified information to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence on 51 former officials who signed a letter alleging that Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign ahead of the 2020 presidential election. Requesting information about the situation.
Just before the 2020 election, 51 former national security officials wrote an open letter claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop “has all the classic hallmarks of Russian intelligence operations.” . It was signed by former President Obama’s CIA Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA Director and Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
Republicans asked Haynes how many of the 51 signatories had “maintained active security clearances” at the time of the letter (October 1-October 31, 2020) and how many currently are required to provide information as to whether they hold security clearances.
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Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, along with Senators James Lish, Tom Cotton, John Cornyn, Jerry Moran and James Lankford on Wednesday, Avril Haynes. I sent a letter to the Director of National Intelligence. , obtained by Fox News Digital, expressed concern about the letter and its potential for “politicizing intelligence.”
Senator Marco Rubio, Republican from Florida and a senior member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, during a hearing in Washington, DC, USA, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“We are deeply concerned that former executives of the U.S. intelligence community have misused their titles and connections to advance a coordinated partisan effort to protect President Biden during the 2020 election,” they said. writes.
“We learned that the letter was part of a deliberate effort to protect the Biden campaign late in the election,” they continued, noting that 51 former intelligence officials had “previous titles and It was to emphasize my experience and strengthen my campaign,” he added. The credibility of the state and the effectiveness of this partisan political operation will be further enhanced. ”
Senator Tom Cotton, Republican Ark. (Getty Images) Director of National Intelligence Avril Haynes (Associated Press)
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Meanwhile, Fox News Digital reported earlier this month that former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morrell, who helped write the letter and gain the support of a former intelligence officer, filed a statement before the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board issued a draft statement. (PCRB). it is public.
Morrell also testified to a congressional committee that it was the Biden campaign who orchestrated the letter to discredit Hunter Biden’s laptop story.
U.S. President Joe Biden’s son Hunter Biden with his wife Melissa prior to the presentation of the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Biden during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, U.S., July 7, 2022. Arrived with Cohen Biden. (Kevin Lamarck/Reuters)
Morrell emailed the draft to the PCRB, writing on October 19, 2020, “This is urgent work as it needs to be resolved as soon as possible.”
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Morrell told the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees that day that the PCRB “approved as written” the letter.
Rubio and senators questioned whether ODNI or the CIA conducted an investigation into Mr. Morrell’s “abuse of the CIA’s PCRB process,” and whether intelligence officials “participated in or assisted in its creation” in October 2020. Haynes is being questioned as to whether he has investigated “Please.” : of the letter.
“All of us in positions of public trust with access to classified information have a duty to the American people not to abuse our positions for political purposes,” they wrote.
The CIA rejected the notion that politics played a role in the PCRB’s decisions.
In a statement to Fox News Digital, the CIA said, “There are no political considerations in the CIA Pre-Disclosure Review Board’s established process for determining whether information submitted by current and former employees contains classified information. It didn’t play its role,” he said. “The PCRB is made up of only reviewing staff.”
