{"id":1921779,"date":"2023-04-30T23:41:33","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T03:41:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cia-veteran-reveals-why-he-didnt-sign-hunter-biden-laptop-letter\/"},"modified":"2023-04-30T23:45:47","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T03:45:47","slug":"cia-veteran-reveals-why-he-didnt-sign-hunter-biden-laptop-letter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cia-veteran-reveals-why-he-didnt-sign-hunter-biden-laptop-letter\/","title":{"rendered":"CIA Veteran Reveals Why He Didn\u2019t Sign Hunter Biden Laptop Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fcia-veteran-reveals-why-he-didnt-sign-hunter-biden-laptop-letter%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1921779&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Retired CIA Official Reveals Why He Refused to Sign Letter on Hunter Biden Laptop Story<\/h2>\n<p>A retired CIA official has opened up about why he did not sign a letter that suggested the Hunter Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation just weeks before the 2020 election. Dan Hoffman, the CIA\u2019s former Moscow station chief, told Fox News he was \u201csurprised\u201d that no one requested his Russia expertise in discussing the letter before it went public and explained why he did not want his signature attached to it.<\/p>\n<h3>The Reason Behind Hoffman&#8217;s Refusal to Sign the Letter<\/h3>\n<p>\u201cI remember I got the letter, October 18, 2020, and at first glance, it seemed natural to lay the blame at the Kremlin\u2019s doorstep. Remember, Vladimir Putin is in the Kremlin and he\u2019s well known for cloak-and-dagger espionage operations,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cBut at the same time, there was no evidence and the letter noted there was no evidence. And I just felt like we needed to do the forensics. It was a very convoluted story.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">After revealing that he was among the group of former officials asked to sign a now-infamous letter saying Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop was Russian disinformation, Dan Hoffman explains why he didn&#8217;t. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bFO5sbQhJx\">pic.twitter.com\/bFO5sbQhJx<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/itsSpencerBrown\/status\/1652020409439535105?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 28, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>The Letter and Its Significance<\/h3>\n<p>The letter, released on October 19, 2020, with the signatures of 51 former intelligence officials, said the alleged laptop contents have \u201call the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,\u201d but it also stressed the signees did not know if emails being reported at the time were genuine and insisted they had no evidence of Russian involvement.<\/p>\n<p>After POLITICO, the news outlet that first reported the statement, published a headline that said the former intelligence officials were claiming the story was \u201cRussian disinfo,\u201d then-candidate Joe Biden, Hunter\u2019s father, used the letter to cast doubt on the laptop story during one of his debates with then-President Donald Trump weeks before the election.<\/p>\n<h3>Authenticity of the Laptop&#8217;s Contents<\/h3>\n<p>Yet over the past two years, many of the laptop\u2019s contents \u2014 revealing details about Biden\u2019s personal life and business dealings \u2014 have been analyzed and shown to be authentic. One of the letter\u2019s most prominent signees, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, in February accused POLITICO of \u201cdeliberately\u201d misrepresenting its message. POLITICO defended its reporting about the letter.<\/p>\n<h3>Hunter Biden&#8217;s Legal Troubles<\/h3>\n<p>In recent months, Hunter Biden\u2019s lawyers began to send letters to state and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/cia-veteran-reveals-why-he-didnt-sign-hunter-biden-laptop-letter\/\" title=\"CIA Veteran Reveals Why He Didn\u2019t Sign Hunter Biden Laptop Letter\">federal officials demanding investigations<\/a> into individuals involved in disseminating the contents of the laptop, including to the media. His attorney, Abbe Lowell, insisted the letters do not \u201cconfirm\u201d the laptop was his client\u2019s device. Hunter Biden is under investigation by federal prosecutors looking into <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/republicans-start-calling-for-blinken-to-resign-over-hunter-biden-laptop-story\/\" title=\"Republicans Start Calling For Blinken To Resign Over Hunter Biden Laptop Story\">potential crimes related<\/a> to his tax affairs, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-calls-travel-lid-for-wednesday-an-hour-after-bobulinski-interview-airs\/\" title=\"Biden Calls Travel Lid for Wednesday an Hour After Bobulinski Interview Airs\">foreign business dealings<\/a>, and a gun purchase. The president\u2019s son has said he expects to be cleared of wrongdoing.<\/p>\n<h3>Hoffman&#8217;s Op-Ed and Morell&#8217;s Interview<\/h3>\n<p>Hoffman came forward last week in a Washington Times <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/miles-anonymous-taylor-accidentally-exposes-the-fraudulence-of-the-mainstream-media\/\" title=\"Miles 'Anonymous' Taylor Accidentally Exposes the Fraudulence of the Mainstream Media\">op-ed<\/a> that said he received an email from former acting CIA Director Michael Morell asking for signatures on the letter. \u201c[T]he email I received from Mr. Morell did not invite any further discussion or debate. The letter was a fait accompli. It was being passed around for signatures, not edits,\u201d he wrote. The op-ed, which noted Hoffman did not even respond to the email as had other priorities at the time, came on the heels of the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees disclosing portions of a transcribed interview in which Morell talked about putting together the letter after a conversation with now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who in October 2020 was a senior adviser to Joe Biden\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<h3>Hoffman&#8217;s Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n<p>In his interview with Fox News, Hoffman said there were \u201cmany others\u201d who did not sign the letter. \u201cLook, when I was at CIA, we would sit in Michael Morell\u2019s office when we had a particularly difficult, challenging intelligence issue, and we would hash out all the evidence that we have, the intelligence we had and then Michael would draw analytical conclusions with some level of confidence \u2014 low, medium, or high \u2014 and bring it to the White House,\u201d Hoffman said. \u201cWe didn\u2019t have that debate about this laptop issue. We weren\u2019t invited to debate it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A retired\u00a0CIA\u00a0official is opening up about why he did not sign\u00a0a letter that suggested the Hunter Biden laptop story could be part of a Russian disinformation operation just weeks before the 2020 election. Dan Hoffman, the CIA\u2019s former Moscow station chief, told Fox News he was \u201csurprised\u201d that no one requested his Russia expertise in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1588,"featured_media":1921780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[3620,7362,4352,3822,6880,4509,5114,4723,4958],"class_list":["post-1921779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-biden","tag-cia","tag-didnt","tag-hunter","tag-laptop","tag-letter","tag-reveals","tag-sign","tag-veteran"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1921779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1921779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1921780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1921779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1921779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1921779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}