A joint report released by three House committees found that a current Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) contractor “conspired” with the Biden campaign when it released a statement ahead of the 2020 election denying Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as Russian disinformation, and that the then-CIA director was aware of the information before the statement was released.
“We knew the hasty statements by 51 former intelligence officials were a political ploy between the Biden campaign and the intelligence community. Now we find that the highest levels of CIA officials were aware of the statements and that CIA officials knew that several of these so-called former employees were under contract with the CIA. This report underscores the risks posed by the weaponization of the federal government,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) said in a press release Tuesday.
House Judiciary Committeethe Select Subcommittee on Weaponization of the Federal Government, and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a report on Tuesday titled, “Intelligence Community 51: How CIA Contractors Conspired with the Biden Campaign to Mislead American Voters.”
The report found that when 51 alleged former intelligence officials released a statement disavowing Hunter’s laptop weeks before the 2020 election, a current CIA contractor “coordinated” with the Biden campaign to “discredit serious allegations of Biden family influence tactics” related to Hunter’s laptop.
Former intelligence officials issued a statement on October 19, 2020, downplaying the laptop as having “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation” and attempting to discredit the New York Post’s explosive reporting about the laptop at the time.
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Chairman Jim Jordan listens as Attorney General Merrick Garland appears at a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on September 20, 2023. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
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“The report reveals new information detailing how the CIA’s highest-ranking officials, including then-Director Gina Haspel, learned of the plan.Official Statement on Hunter Biden’s Emails “The letter was approved by 51 former intelligence officials prior to its approval and release,” the press release stated, outlining possible knowledge of the letter by Haspel, who served as CIA director from 2018 to 2021 under the Trump administration.
CIA Chief Operating Officer Andrew Makridis testified that he had informed Haspel or Deputy Director Vaughn Frederick Bishop of the statement before it was released, and the report indicates that CIA directors had an opportunity to review the validity of the statement to discredit the laptop containing Russian disinformation.
The laptop was discovered again earlier this month when Hunter Biden was on criminal trial in Delaware over a 2018 firearms purchase. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)
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The report also included internal CIA emails in which intelligence officials lamented the political nature of the statement.
“This frustrates me. I don’t think it’s beneficial to the CIA in the long run. Sigh,” an anonymous CIA official said in an email on Oct. 20, 2020, the day after Politico published a statement disparaging the laptop as disinformation.
Another anonymous colleague responded to the email, pointing out that some of the signatories were current CIA contractors.
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President Biden spoke in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on September 15, 2023. (Chris Kleponis/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“I also like that at least some of the randomly selected signatures are from individuals currently working here under contract…” the email response reads.
Hunter Biden and his wife, Melissa Cohen, during their trial in Wilmington, Delaware. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The 2020 statement was signed by former CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper, as well as former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell and former CIA Inspector General David Buckley.
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According to the report, Morell, who helped draft the statement and said he would provide “talking points” for President Biden during the 2020 presidential debates, was in fact a CIA contractor when the letter was issued, and the report, citing CIA documents, said Buckley was also a contractor when the letter was issued.
“It is deeply disturbing that the signatories of the Hunter Biden Statement were under contract to the CIA at the time the Statement was drafted, reviewed, and released. This revelation indicates that Morell, Buckley, and likely other signatories received American taxpayer funds while engaging in a political project to mislead American voters on behalf of the Biden campaign. Such overt political activity is illegal for full-time CIA employees under the Hatch Act. Congress should consider whether to extend this important prohibition to CIA contractors,” the report states.
The Hatch Act is a federal law that prohibits most civilian federal employees, including intelligence operatives, from participating in partisan political activity.
Fox News Digital reached out to the White House about the report’s findings on Wednesday morning but did not immediately receive a response. The CIA told Fox News Digital after this story was first published that the former intelligence officers who signed the letter “are not speaking on behalf of the CIA.”
“CIA employees are required to sign non-disclosure agreements as a condition of their employment, which include a lifetime obligation to submit all intelligence-related materials to the CIA’s Pre-Disclosure Review Board (PCRB) before release,” a CIA spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. “That process was followed in this case. The PCRB reviews materials to determine whether they contain classified information. The PCRB’s determination that information is not classified does not guarantee the content or veracity of what was reviewed. These former employees are not speaking on behalf of the CIA.”
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Biden used the statement as a “talking point” during his final debate with President Trump in 2020, with dozens of signatories claiming the laptop was proof it was Russian propaganda.
“Fifty former national intelligence officials have said that what Trump is accusing me of being a Russian agent,” Biden said at the time. “Five former CIA directors from both parties say what Trump is saying is bullshit. No one believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”
President Trump answered questions during a debate with former Vice President Biden at Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee on October 22, 2020. (Molly Gash/Pool via Reuters)
The New York Post’s explosive 2020 report on the contents of Hunter’s laptop was overwhelmingly dismissed by the media as “Russian disinformation” in 2020. However, the liberal media changed their tune in 2022 after newspapers such as The Washington Post and The New York Times debunked thousands of his emails as authentic. The laptop came into public view after Hunter left it at a repair shop in Delaware ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
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President Biden takes a walk with his son, Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnick)
The laptop was discovered again earlier this month during the criminal trial of his eldest son, Hunter, in Delaware, for allegedly purchasing a firearm while struggling with a cocaine addiction in 2018. Hunter was found guilty of all charges during the trial, and the laptop was formally introduced into evidence and confirmed as legitimate by the FBI.
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“The House Intelligence Committee’s work has provided compelling, direct evidence that 51 former intelligence officials worked with the Biden campaign in the final weeks before the 2020 presidential election to falsely cast doubt on a bombshell New York Post story and label Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop as ‘Russian disinformation.’ The Committee obtained classified CIA documents, including emails, and worked to include evidence of these materials in its report,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio) said in a statement about the report.
