In the fall of 2020, after the New York Post reported on Hunter Biden’s “laptop from hell,” the Biden campaign moved to discredit the story. It enlisted 51 former intelligence officials to sign a letter suggesting the laptop was Russian disinformation, and it did this just days before a crucial debate, allowing Biden to dismiss the story during his joust with Trump. This letter also helped Big Tech justify censoring the story on social media, making it one of the most blatant instances of election interference in U.S. history.
On Monday, Trump revoked the security clearances of those 51 officials.
“In the closing weeks of the 2020 Presidential campaign, at least 51 former intelligence officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to issue a letter discrediting the reporting that President Joseph R. Biden’s son had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business,” the executive order began. “Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
Federal policymakers must be able to rely on analysis conducted by the Intelligence Community and be confident that it is accurate, crafted with professionalism, and free from politically motivated engineering to affect political outcomes in the United States. The signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions. This fabrication of the imprimatur of the Intelligence Community to suppress information essential to the American people during a Presidential election is an egregious breach of trust reminiscent of a third world country. And now the faith of Americans in all other patriotic intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect the Nation has been imperiled.
The executive order revokes security clearances of former intelligence officials, including James Clapper, Michael Hayden, Leon Panetta, and John Brennan, for their involvement in misleading political activities related to the 2020 Biden campaign. It also strips John Bolton of his clearance for publishing a memoir with sensitive government information in 2019.
Related: Trump Slams Biden’s Family Pardons: ‘Makes Him Look Very Guilty’
The order outlines measures to prevent the intelligence community from engaging in partisan politics, bars clearance holders from influencing elections, limits the use of classified info for memoirs, and mandates an investigation into the letter and anyone who may have been connected to it. A report on the findings is due in 90 days, detailing any additional misconduct and recommending actions to prevent future election interference, along with potential disciplinary measures.
That’s a very interesting detail because, in 2023, the House Judiciary Committee revealed that former CIA Director Mike Morell testified that the Biden campaign, led by Antony Blinken — later Biden's Secretary of State — was behind the letter falsely claiming that Hunter Biden's laptop was “Russian disinformation.”
Morell told the committee that Blinken, then a senior campaign official, contacted him after the New York Post exposed the contents of the laptop, which included evidence of shady overseas business dealings, influence peddling, and compromising photos and videos of Hunter with prostitutes. Morell admitted to orchestrating the letter and gathering its signatories with the explicit goal of helping then-Vice President Biden in the election, acknowledging he used his influence to push the false narrative in support of the campaign.
Neither Antony Blinken nor any of the signatories of the letter were pardoned by Joe Biden.
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