Ex-CIA Chief Explains How He Got Spies to Write False Hunter Biden Laptop Letter to Help Biden

Biden Campaign Organized Letter Discrediting Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Former acting CIA Director Mike Morell testified that Antony Blinken, now Secretary of State, was the senior campaign official who reached out to him to organize a letter in October 2020 falsely claiming that damning emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop published by The Post were Russian disinformation. Morell said he organized the letter to “help Vice President Biden … because I wanted him to win the election.”

The Plot Thickens

Morell testified that he had no intention of writing any statement exonerating Biden until Blinken’s call, which “triggered … that intent” in him. At the bottom of Blinken’s email was the signature block of Andrew Bates, then-director of rapid response for the Biden campaign. Morell reached out to retired CIA senior operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos for assistance in compiling the letter discrediting The Post’s reporting. Over the next two days, Morell gathered signatures from 51 former intelligence officials, including himself and four other former CIA directors, including John Brennan and Leon Panetta.

The Fallout

The letter was used by candidate Joe Biden during the Oct. 22 debate against President Donald Trump to deflect accusations about his involvement in his family’s international influence-peddling operation. It was also used to try to discredit The Post’s reporting that had embarrassed candidate Biden by contradicting his claims during the campaign that he had never spoken to his son about his overseas business dealings. Morell testified that after the debate, he received a call from Steve Ricchetti, chairman of the Biden campaign, to thank him for writing the statement.

The Request

Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote to Blinken requesting his assistance in examining the origins of the infamous public statement signed by 51 former intelligence officials that falsely discredited a New York Post story regarding Hunter Biden’s laptop as supposed Russian disinformation. Jordan and Turner told Blinken they were requesting his assistance because they “have learned that you played a role in the inception of this statement while serving as a Biden campaign advisor …

• Jordan and Turner have asked Blinken to hand over all documents and communications relating to the letter.
• They have also asked Blinken to provide the House with the identities of everyone involved in its “inception, drafting, editing, signing, publishing, or promotion.”

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.