The House Select Subcommittee on Federal Government Armaments has revealed some damning insights into how the Biden campaign coordinated the manufacture and dissemination of Hunter Biden’s notorious “intel” letter that affected the 2020 election.
It appears that then-Biden campaign adviser and now Secretary of State Antony Blinken circulated the fake letter that was intended to discredit the New York Post. What’s more, it’s clear that the Biden campaign handpicked liberal outlets to parade his work, right before a critical presidential debate.
Blinken starts Biden’s disinformation campaign
The New York Post published an explosive story on October 14, 2020, about the laptop Hunter Biden abandoned at a Delaware computer store and an email about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s shady connections to Burisma , a holding company of a group of Ukrainians. energy companies.
A few days later, Blinken, who worked for the Biden campaign, reached out to former acting CIA director Mike Morell to discuss the Post’s reports, hinting that it could be Russian disinformation.
Just as Blinken was earmarked for a top position in the Biden administration in the event the Hunter Biden story fizzled out, Morell was considered to be named Biden’s CIA director.
In the subsequent exchange between Blinken and Morell, it became clear, based on a signature at the bottom of one of the emails, that there were other Biden activists possibly involved.
Blinken forwarded to Morell a USA Today article titled, “Tabloid got tons of info on Hunter Biden from Rudy Giuliani. Now, FBI is investigating possible disinformation campaign.” At the bottom of Blinken’s email was the signature pad of Andrew Bates, then director of rapid response for the Biden campaign.
Bates, the arms committee noted, was tasked at the time with defending Biden “against attacks on the campaign trail, while employing an aggressive offensive strategy against President Trump and his team.”
Morell testified that after and as a result of this exchange with Biden’s future secretary of state, he began drafting the letter with the goal of getting it out before the Oct. 22 presidential debate, in which Biden he used the statement to great effect.
Bad intelligence
The committee noted that Morell testified that he did not speak to anyone about possible Russian involvement with the laptop, but instead “investigated the matter himself after his conversation with [then-Biden campaign adviser Antony] The blink.”
In an Oct. 18, 2020, email asking for signatures, Morell wrote that he wrote the letter “because we believe the Russians were somehow involved in the Hunter Biden email issue and because we believe Trump will attack Biden on this issue. debate of the week and we want to give the vice president a talking point to use as a response.”
The signature campaign was a success.
James Clapper, former director of national intelligence; Leon Panetta, former head of the CIA; John Brennan, former head of the CIA; Michael Hayden, former head of the National Security Agency; Nick Rasmussen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center; Mike Vickers, former undersecretary of defense for intelligence; and dozens of others signed the letter titled “Public Statement on Hunter Biden’s Emails.”
The letter Morell drafted declared that the Hunter Biden laptop story and the evidence it discussed was likely a total fabrication — that the story had “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation.” .
Despite admitting in the letter that they did not know whether Hunter Biden’s emails provided to the New York Post were “authentic” and lacked “evidence of Russian involvement,” Clapper and his colleagues suggested a “laptop operation” designed “to discredit Biden . . . would be consistent with some of the key methods that Russia has used in its now several-year-old operation to interfere with our democracy.”
The author of the now-discredited letter added: “Our experience makes us strongly suspect that the Russian government has played a significant role in this case. If we’re right, this is Russia trying to influence how North Americans vote. Americans in this election, and we strongly believe that Americans need to be aware of that.”
Biden campaign sparks media response
After securing a large number of signatories that he allegedly “duped” — allegedly with the help of a CIA insider — Morell had Nick Shapiro, his former deputy chief of staff and senior CIA adviser, “coordinates outreach efforts with the media.”
Morell told Shapiro what to say on and off the record with reporters.
“On your record: What’s this? A large group of former career intelligence officers, many specializing in Russia, joined by a group of former IC leaders, all saying that the Russians were somehow involved here,” Morell told Shapiro. “The IC leaders who have signed on here are diverse, having worked for the last four presidents, including Trump. The real power here is the number of former working-level IC officers who want let the American people know.”
Morell further told Shapiro to volunteer the following details: “Make sure the reporters know we’re not making a call to find out whether the materials are true or not, just that Moscow played a significant role in disclosure of information”.
The unearthed emails show that Morell stressed that the Biden campaign preferred that the Washington Post publish the story first.
According to the committee, “Morell informed Shapiro that”[b]Between us, the campaign would like a specific Washington Post reporter to make the statement first.”
u201cBut it doesn’t stop there! nnThe Biden campaign also coordinated the release of the statement to other members of the media. nn@washingtonpost, @AP, @politicou201d
— Weapons Committee (@Weaponization Committee) 1683714333
After packaging the intended narrative in email form for the media to disseminate, Shapiro directed the content to the Biden campaign, ostensibly for his approval.
Despite its preference for the Washington Post’s “Democracy Dies in Darkness” team to advance the narrative, the Biden campaign also saw fit to pass the letter to the Associated Press with its preferred framing.
When none of the liberal media immediately ran the story, Politico’s Natasha Bertrand dutifully did so, with an October 19, 2020 piece titled “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinformation, dozens of former US officials say intelligence”.
While echoing suggestions made in the letter, Bertrand also advanced claims by top Biden advisers in the piece, including their rebuttals to credible allegations about Biden’s dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Bertrand seems to have been rewarded with a gig at CNN not long after.
u201cHow much coordination was there between the signatories of the Hunter Biden u201cintelu201d letter and the Biden campaign? nnSo much so, that the Biden campaign indicated which news outlet they would like us to start the story with. nnThe catch? @washingtonpost.u201d
— Weapons Committee (@Weaponization Committee) 1683713787
pay off
Then-candidate Joe Biden seized on both the Politico report and the letter, referencing them in the final presidential debate with former President Donald Trump, saying, “Look, there are 50 former national intelligence people who said my accuser is a Russian. They’ve said this has all the makings of four, five former heads of the CIA, both sides, saying what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody cares believe, except for him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”
Blinken’s activated card came in handy on at least one other occasion.
Biden cited the discredited letter on “60 Minutes,” saying, “From what I’ve read and know, the intelligence community warned the president that Giuliani was getting disinformation from the Russians. And we also know that Putin is trying hard. It’s hard to spread disinformation about Joe Biden. So when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani and the president together, you gauge what it is. It’s a smear campaign because he has nothing he wants to talk about in his , what is he. What is he running on?”
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