<\/p>\n
February 6, 2023
\nIn The News
\nDaniel Chaitin<\/p>\n
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) is turning up the heat on 51 U.S. intelligence veterans who signed a letter suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation.<\/p>\n
Jordan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Michael Turner (R-OH) signed letters sent Monday to 12 of these ex-intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.<\/p>\n
In the correspondence obtained by The Daily Wire, the lawmakers said a request for relevant documents and testimony from the House Judiciary Committee in April 2022, when Jordan was ranking member of the panel, did not receive full compliance. \u201cAs we begin the 118th Congress, we write again to reiterate our outstanding request and ask that you immediately comply in full,\u201d the lawmakers wrote, alluding to the fact that Republicans are now in control of the House.<\/p>\n
The other recipients of letters on Monday were Rick Ledgett, John McLaughlin, Michael Morell, Nicholas Rasmussen, Russell Travers, Michael Vickers, Nick Shapiro, Jeremy Bash, Thomas Fingar, and Michael Hayden. Many of them held high-level positions in the CIA while others were high-ranking officials in other parts of the U.S. intelligence community.<\/p>\n
The letters make no mention of subpoenas, but Jordan has shown a willingness to use the tool. Last week, Jordan\u00a0issued his first round of subpoenas<\/a>\u00a0as chairman to\u00a0top Biden administration officials seeking documents related to local school board meetings.<\/p>\n The\u00a0letter from the 51 former intelligence officials<\/a>\u00a0came out in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election, warning that reporting about the laptop\u2019s alleged contents \u201chas all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.\u201d\u00a0Although the signees stressed they did not know if emails being reported at the time were genuine and they insisted they had no evidence of Russian involvement, the letter was nevertheless used to dismiss the laptop and its provenance.<\/p>\n POLITICO, which first reported the letter, went further than what the letter said by\u00a0publishing a headline<\/a>\u00a0that said the former intelligence officials were claiming the story was \u201cRussian disinfo.\u201d Then-candidate Joe Biden, Hunter\u2019s father, used the letter to\u00a0cast doubt on the laptop story<\/a>\u00a0during one of his debates with then-President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n The laptop, which allegedly was abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop before the FBI obtained it, contains details about Hunter Biden\u2019s personal life and financial affairs. The president\u2019s son is now under federal investigation, including over his foreign business dealings and tax affairs, though the existence of that years-long inquiry was not\u00a0revealed to the public<\/a>\u00a0until after the 2020 election. Hunter Biden has said he expects to be\u00a0cleared of wrongdoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee initially demanded in April 2022 materials from the 51 intelligence veterans that identify anyone they contacted about drafting and promoting the letter.<\/p>\n Since the laptop story emerged more than two years ago, many of its contents have been\u00a0analyzed and shown to be authentic<\/a>.<\/p>\n Douglas Wise, a former Defense Intelligence Agency deputy director,\u00a0divulged last month<\/a>\u00a0that he and the other signees surmised the contents of the laptop were genuine at the time the letter came out. \u201cAll of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible,\u201d he\u00a0told The Australian<\/a>.<\/p>\n Last week, Hunter Biden\u2019s lawyers sent letters to state and federal officials\u00a0demanding investigations into individuals<\/a>\u00a0involved in sharing the contents of the laptop, which made their way to the media. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, later insisted the letters\u00a0do not \u201cconfirm\u201d<\/a>\u00a0the laptop was his client\u2019s device.<\/p>\n Read the full article\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n