A recently released House report revealed that some former intelligence officers who signed the letter, which cast doubt on the integrity of the Hunter Biden computer library, were working for the CIA at the time. This text, which suggested the computer narrative was Russian propaganda, was signed by 51 ex- intelligence officers during the 2020 presidential election.
According to National Review, at least four signatories, including former assistant CIA director Michael Morell, former CIA older investigator general David Buckley, former CIA official Jeremy Bash, and former NSA agent Richard Ledgett, were CIA contractors when they signed the letter. Some of these people also had access to CIA services, a right usually reserved for those who were actively working for the organization.
One CIA standard in an internal email string discussing the letter noted that” I even love that at least a few of the strange signatories belong to individuals already working around on contracts.”
The CIA did not disclose the complete list of vendors to parliamentary authorities, citing safety reasons. The document, produced by employees on the Judiciary Committee, Weaponization Subcommittee, and the Intelligence Committee, was based on evidence and domestic CIA messages.
” Hunter Biden’s speech had all the marks of an intellect community influence operation. However, the report claims that this activity was directed at the American citizens and our democratic processes rather than against our opponents on foreign land.
Michael Morell admitted in a testimony before the House Judiciary Committee last year that the email was the result of a letter with Joe Biden’s Democratic political strategy. In contrast to the New York Post’s investigating on the Hunter Biden laptop, Joe Biden cited the letter during a 2020 presidential debate against previous president Donald Trump. According to reports, the laptop emails revealed Hunter Biden’s attempts to smuggle his father’s position to safe attractive positions with China’s CEFC and the Russian energy company Burisma Holdings.
Due to the evaluation procedure that Haspel used to submit proposals from current or former leading leaders, senior CIA officials, including then-director Gina Haspel, were likely aware of the email. The CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB ) typically reviews publications by intelligence officials, and Haspel required the panel to flag such publications.
Andrew Makridis, the then-chief operating officer of the CIA, testified that his company had been informed of the Hunter Biden laptop text and would have gotten back to the producer or deputy chairman. Makridis, a 37- time firm senior, admitted he had never seen anything like the Hunter Biden speech during his job.
Fletcher urged the PCRB to complete the text in a timely manner and acknowledged that Morell had a significant role in its creation. The PCRB acknowledged receiving Morell’s speech in less than 40 minutes, and a couple of hours afterwards, Makridis’s associate informed the PCRB it was contact Fletcher he was allowed to publish the statement, reflecting the rapid speed at which the letter was processed.
Morell and Makridis both claimed that it was inappropriate for active CIA contractors to get involved in the political process. If the contractors ‘ active status was taken into account when they submitted the Hunter Biden statement, it is still unclear if the PCRB took that into account.
Morell claimed that one of the letter’s goals was to aid in the defeat of Trump. Marc Polymeropoulos, another key signatory, was accused by a CIA official of potentially using classified information to assist the Biden campaign. Polymeropoulos claimed Fox News and Republicans were susceptible to Russian disinformation in his remarks to the PCRB.
” This frustrates me. I do n’t believe it will be beneficial to the Agency over the long run. Sigh”, a CIA official commented in an internal email chain, linking to the infamous Politico article on the statement.
Makridis claimed in his testimony that the letter was a political document, which is why he would not have signed it because he had echoed these sentiments.
Federal prosecutors presented the physical laptop and data from it as evidence during Hunter Biden’s gun trial earlier this month. Investigators cross-referencing the laptop’s serial number with Hunter Biden’s iCloud backups provided more information about how investigators verified the data. Her testimony closely resembled Gary Shapley’s, an IRS whistleblower who had previously described the procedure for authenticating the laptop.