Former spy wanted to give Biden campaign a debate topic with discredited Hunter Biden letter.

Former CIA Official Admits to Using Discredited Letter as a “Talking Point” in Biden-Trump Debate

Background

A former CIA official, Michael Morell, has admitted to using a discredited letter claiming that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation as a “talking point” in the 2020 debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Morell laid out the strategy in an email to former CIA director John Brennan, asking him to sign on to the letter with dozens of other former intelligence officials. The letter portrayed the release of Hunter Biden’s laptop as a Russian intelligence operation.

The Debate

During the debate, Joe Biden cited the letter, saying, “There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant.” Republicans have questioned whether Morell colluded with the Biden campaign on the letter.

The Aftermath

Morell told Congress last month that he wrote the letter after a conversation with then-Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken, now the secretary of state. Morell said he wrote the letter to help Biden defeat Trump. Blinken claims he did not ask Morell to write the letter, but Morell suggested in his congressional interview that he may have had other conversations with the Biden campaign before the letter was published.

The Signatories

Morell recruited 50 former intelligence officials in all to sign the letter, including Brennan and four other former CIA directors. Many of the signatories work at Morell’s intelligence consulting firm, Beacon Global Strategies. One of those is former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, whom Biden appointed last year to the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board.

Conclusion

The use of the discredited letter as a “talking point” in the debate raises questions about the integrity of the election process. It remains to be seen whether any further action will be taken in response to these revelations.