Ex-CIA Official: Blinken Prompted Infamous Intel Statement Calling Hunter Biden Laptop Russian Disinfo
A former CIA official testified that Antony Blinken, current Secretary of State and then-Biden campaign advisor, played a role in the creation of a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials that claimed the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation. Ohio Representatives Jim Jordan and Michael Turner, chairmen of the Judiciary and Intel Committees respectively, sent a letter to Blinken informing him that their committees are conducting oversight of federal law-enforcement and intelligence matters. They requested Blinken's assistance with their oversight, claiming that he played a role in the inception of the statement while serving as a Biden campaign advisor.
During his recent testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, Michael Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA who signed onto the letter, revealed that Blinken had reached out to him to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story around October 17, 2020. According to Morell, Blinken's outreach "set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement" that baselessly asserted the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Blinken later emailed Morell an article from USA Today that same day "alleging that the FBI was examining whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a 'disinformation campaign.'"
Blinken wasn't the only Biden campaign official Morell was in contact with regarding the statement. Following the October 22, 2020, presidential debate, Steve Ricchetti, Biden's campaign chairman, reached out to him to personally thank him "for putting the statement out." Morell also claimed that the Biden campaign was involved in strategically disseminating the statement to the public. According to the Jordan-Turner letter, Morell testified that "he sent an email telling Nick Shapiro, former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director of the CIA John Brennan, that the Biden campaign wanted the statement to go to a particular reporter at the Washington Post first and that he should send the statement to the campaign when he sent the letter to the reporter."
The debunked letter signed by Morell and dozens of other former intel officials was used by Joe Biden in his October 22 debate with then-President Donald Trump to dispel Trump's criticisms of the Bidens' business dealings. Biden cited the letter, saying, "Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, [President Trump's] accusing me of is a Russian plan." The letter was also used by corporate media to dismiss the laptop story implicating the Biden family.
Big Tech outlets launched a censorship campaign aimed at preventing the circulation of the laptop story shortly after the New York Post's publication. As revealed in the "Twitter Files," Twitter took steps to suppress the story, including removing links, posting warnings that it may be "unsafe," and blocking its transmission via direct message. Meanwhile, during an August interview with podcast host Joe Rogan, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook algorithmically suppressed stories about Hunter Biden's laptop during the 2020 election after being warned by the FBI about forthcoming "Russian propaganda."
Jordan and Turner wrote that "this concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family was a grave disservice to all American citizens' informed participation in our democracy." In concluding their letter to Blinken, the Republican congressmen asked the secretary of state to produce all documents and communications and identify all people with whom he communicated regarding the October 2020 statement by May 4.
