House committee: Blinken got the ball rolling on Hunter Biden 'intel' letter; Biden campaign weighed in on press strategy
The House Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government has revealed some damning insights into how the Biden campaign coordinated the manufacture and dissemination of the notorious Hunter Biden "intel" letter that impacted the 2020 election.
It appears as though then-senior Biden campaign adviser and now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken got the ball rolling on the bogus letter that sought to discredit the New York Post. Additionally, it is clear the Biden campaign handpicked liberal outlets to parade their handiwork in, just ahead of a critical presidential debate.
Blinken kicks off Biden disinformation campaign
Just as Blinken was destined for a big position in Biden's administration in the event that the Hunter Biden story was rendered toothless, Morell was reportedly under consideration to be appointed Biden's CIA director.
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 aim to get it out before the Oct. 22 presidential debate, in which Biden used the statement to great effect.
Bad intelligence
The committee indicated that Morell testified that he did not speak to anyone about potential Russian involvement with the laptop, but "rather researched the issue himself following his conversation with [then-Biden campaign adviser Antony] Blinken."
In an Oct. 18, 2020, email requesting signatures, Morell wrote that he had drafted the letter "because we believe the Russians were involved in some way in the Hunter Biden email issue and because we think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week's debate and we want to give the VP a talking point to use in response."
The letter Morell drafted declared that the Hunter Biden laptop story and the evidence it discussed were likely all an utter fabrication — that the story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Despite admitting in the letter to not knowing whether the Hunter Biden emails provided to the New York Post were "genuine" and having no "evidence of Russian involvement," Clapper and his peers suggested a "laptop op" designed "to discredit Biden ... would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy."
The author of the now-discredited letter added, "Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case. If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this."
Biden campaign puppets media response
Morell told Shapiro what to say on and off the record with reporters.
"On the record from you: What is 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 here are diverse in that they worked for the past four Presidents, including Trump. The real power here is the number of former, working-level IC officers who want the American people to know."
Morell further instructed Shapiro to volunteer the following details off the record: "Make sure sure reporters know that we are not making a call on whether the materials are true or not, just that Moscow played a role in getting the information out."
Unearthed emails show that Morell stressed that the Biden campaign preferred that the Washington Post first run the story.
According to the committee, "Morell apprised Shapiro that, '[b]etween us, the campaign would like' a specific reporter with the Washington Post to run the statement first."
\u201cBut it doesn\u2019t stop there! \n\nThe Biden Campaign coordinated the dissemination of the statement to other members of the media as well. \n\n@washingtonpost, @AP, @politico\u201d— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization Committee) 1683714333
After packaging the intended narrative in email form for the media to disseminate, Shapiro ran the content by the Biden campaign, ostensibly for its approval.
Despite its preference that the "Democracy dies in darkness" crew at the Washington Post advance the narrative, the Biden campaign also saw fit to have the letter passed to the Associated Press with its preferred framing.
When neither liberal outlet ran the story right away, Natasha Bertrand at Politico did so dutifully, with an Oct. 19, 2020, piece entitled, "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."
While parroting the suggestions made in the letter, Bertrand also advanced claims by Biden's top advisers in the piece, including their rebukes of credible accusations concerning the Bidens' business dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Bertrand appears to have been rewarded with a CNN gig not long thereafter.
\u201cHow much coordination was happening between the signers of the Hunter Biden \u201cintel\u201d letter and the Biden Campaign? \n\nSo much, that the Biden Campaign signaled which news outlet they\u2019d like to break the story first. \n\nThe outlet? @washingtonpost.\u201d— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization Committee) 1683713787
Payoff
Then-candidate Joe Biden exploited 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 folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics — four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani."
The Blinken-triggered letter came in handy on at least one other occasion.
Biden cited the discredited letter on "60 Minutes," where he said, "From what I’ve read and know, the intelligence community warned the president that Giuliani was being fed disinformation from the Russians. And we also know that Putin is trying very hard to spread disinformation about Joe Biden. And so when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani, and the president together, you assess what it is. It’s a smear campaign because he has nothing he wants to talk about in his — what is he running on? What is he running on?"
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Hunter Biden sues computer repair shop owner for violating his privacy in giving laptop data to his 'political enemies'
Hunter Biden, the son of President Joe Biden, filed a lawsuit against a Delaware computer repair shop owner for invasion of privacy after he gave Biden's laptop to his "political enemies."
The lawsuit filed Friday by Biden's attorneys is a countersuit to one filed by John Paul Mac Isaac, the owner of the repair shop.
“Mac Isaac intended and knew, or clearly should have known, that people to whom he provided the data that he believed to belong to Mr. Biden would use it against then-candidate Joseph Biden and to assist then-President Trump,” read the lawsuit.
The lawsuit accused Mac Isaac of handing over Biden's “sensitive, private material" from the laptop.
“Mac Isaac intended and knew, or clearly should have known, that people to whom he provided the data that he believed to belong to Mr. Biden would use it against then-candidate Joseph Biden and to assist then-President Trump,” the lawsuit read.
Hunter Biden reportedly dropped the laptop off to Mac Isaac's shop in Wilmington, Delaware, in April 2019 and asked him to recover the data after it had become water damaged. Mac Isaac was able to do so but he grew alarmed at the data he saw on the laptop
Biden didn't pick up the laptop and after 90 days it became the property of Mac Isaac. He says that he sent it to the FBI, but eight months later, as the election grew near, he heard nothing back and saw nothing in the media. That's when he alerted Rudy Giuliani, who represented former President Donald Trump at the time, about the laptop.
In 2020, the New York Post published the contents of the laptop, but the story was censored by social media platforms over claims that the laptop might have been part of a Russian disinformation campaign. In March 2022, the New York Times verified that some of the information on the laptop was authentic.
Mac Issac said in an interview with Inside Edition in November that he had no regrets about what he did despite admitting that he fears for his life.
“If I did not do it, I would be doing a disservice to the country," he said.
Here's more about Mac Isaac:
Hunter Biden Laptop Repairman Says He Has No Regrets www.youtube.com
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James Clapper ridiculed for about-face on his 2020 suggestion that the Hunter Biden laptop story had 'all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation'
Former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper may soon have to face facts about an impactful and misleading letter he penned with other intelligence officials ahead of the 2020 presidential election. His letter implied that the New York Post's damning report on Hunter Biden's emails was part of a "Russian information operation."
Now, with a congressional investigation into the matter in the works and the liberal mainstream media in belated agreement that the Hunter Biden laptop and the data thereon were authentic, Clapper appears desperate to revise the record.
Rather than admit to possibly misusing his former credibility and credentials to protect a political candidate in a fraught election, Clapper has instead elected to suggest that the media misconstrued his and other intelligence community partisans' meaning concerning the laptop story.
This timely deflection of accountability has been met with outrage and ridicule, with some critics questioning why Clapper and others have waited over two years to point the fingers at Politico and other media outfits.
What is the background?
On Oct. 19, 2019, 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 under secretary of defense for intelligence; and dozens of others penned a letter entitled, "Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails."
The letter declared that the Hunter Biden laptop story and the evidence it discussed were likely all an utter fabrication — that the story had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Despite admitting in the letter to not knowing whether the Hunter Biden emails provided to the New York Post were "genuine" and having no "evidence of Russian involvement," Clapper and his peers suggested a "laptop op" designed "to discredit Biden ... would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy."
The authors of the now-discredited letter added, "Our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case. If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this."
According to former Attorney General Bill Barr, it was not Russia but Clapper and fellow intelligence alumni who used disinformation to influence how Americans voted in the 2020 election.
Barr told conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt last year, "The intelligence officials suggesting that it was Russian disinformation in order to essentially keep a cork in it until after the election ... I think that that probably affected the outcome, or at least there is a very distinct probability of that."
Then-candidate Joe Biden used the letter to great effect, referencing it in the final presidential debate with former President Donald Trump on Oct. 22, 2020, saying, "Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics — four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani."
Biden utilized the discredited letter on another occasion in conversation with "60 Minutes," where he said, "From what I’ve read and know, the intelligence community warned the president that Giuliani was being fed disinformation from the Russians. And we also know that Putin is trying very hard to spread disinformation about Joe Biden. And so when you put the combination of Russia, Giuliani, and the president together, you assess what it is. It’s a smear campaign because he has nothing he wants to talk about in his — what is he running on? What is he running on?"
While partisan operatives and the FBI reportedly worked with social media companies to kill the New York Post story online, the liberal media amplified the claims made in the intel officials' letter.
Politico ran a story by Natasha Bertrand entitled "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say" on Oct. 19, 2020, just weeks before the election.
Bertrand had been given the letter by a former top aide under CIA director John Brennan, a signatory of the letter.
The aide claimed, "The IC leaders who have signed this letter worked for the past four presidents, including Trump. The real power here however is the number of former, working-level IC officers who want the American people to know that once again the Russians are interfering."
While parroting the suggestions made in the letter, Bertrand also advanced claims by Biden's top advisers, including their rebukes of credible accusations concerning the Bidens' business dealings in Ukraine and elsewhere.
Glenn Greenwald tweeted Monday, "The pre-election lie -- and that's what it was -- that the NY Post's reporting was based on 'Russian disinformation' was first disseminated by @Politico and @NatashaBertrand , who was rewarded for her lying by being hired by CNN."
\u201cThe pre-election lie -- and that's what it was -- that the NY Post's reporting was based on "Russian disinformation" was first disseminated by @Politico and @NatashaBertrand, who was rewarded for her lying by being hired by CNN. \n\nJames Clapper now says they *deliberately* lied\ud83d\udc47\u201d— Glenn Greenwald (@Glenn Greenwald) 1676313870
Clapper unwilling to take the hit
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) wrote to Clapper, Brennan, Hayden, and several other signatories of the letter on Feb. 6, accusing them of falsely implying the New York Post's reporting about Hunter Biden was the product of Russian disinformation.
In a previous letter sent on April 6, 2022, Jordan and other Republicans noted that Clapper's "public statement served as a basis for Democrat operatives to try to delegitimize the scandalous allegations about Hunter Biden and the Biden family."
The April letter added, "At best, the public statement was a reckless attempt by you and your co-signatories to erroneously opine about purported election interference. At worse—and more likely—the public statement was a deliberate and coordinated effort to mislead the American people about information relevant to the 2020 presidential election by invoking your national security experience to falsely suggest that the allegations about Hunter Biden were not based in fact."
Now that he is required to testify before Congress, Clapper is accusing Bertrand of having "deliberately" lied about the letter — an accusation he has apparently waited over two years to make.
Glenn Greenwald said, "It's amazing what's going on here. Because of the House hearing investigating this, the political and media establishment can't ignore what they did any longer. So now they're turning on each other, blaming one another for the disinformation campaign."
"If James Clapper knew Politico and Natasha Bertrand were lying about what their letter said, why didn't he say so then? Reality: the CIA/IC people lying wanted the media to spread this. Only now that someone has to take the hit is Clapper saying Politico lied," added Greenwald.
\u201cVery good point: if James Clapper knew Politico and Natasha Bertrand were lying about what their letter said, why didn't he say so then?\n\nReality: the CIA/IC people lying wanted the media to spread this. Only now that someone has to take the hit is Clapper saying Politico lied.\u201d— Glenn Greenwald (@Glenn Greenwald) 1676313870
When afforded an opportunity to clarify his meaning on CNN in October, Clapper, who allegedly lied to Congress in 2013, suggested that the emails serving as the basis of the Hunter Biden laptop story could be fake and "is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work."
\u201c\u201cTo me, this is just classic textbook Soviet Russian tradecraft at work,\u201d former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper says as authorities are investigating if recently published emails are tied to a Russian disinformation effort targeting Biden. https://t.co/shyMNnJ7Yr\u201d— CNN (@CNN) 1602905492
In an apparent about-face, Clapper recently told the Washington Post, "There was message distortion. ... All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation. Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five."
Glenn Kessler, a so-called fact-checker at the Washington Post, attempted to reinforce Clapper's accusation on Monday, suggesting that the Politico headline "likely shaped perceptions of the letter that continue to this day. The article itself does not say the letter made a disinformation claim."
Like Clapper, Politico too is apparently unwilling to assume any blame.
Politico told the Post that its "article fairly and accurately reported on — and summarized — the intelligence officials’ letter. More specifically, the headline is a fair summary of their allegations, the subhead offers additional context, and the first paragraph of the article hyperlinks to the letter itself, allowing readers to draw their own conclusion."
New York Post columnist Miranda Devine told Fox News Digital that Clapper's greatly delayed desire to clarify his remarks "show what a fraud he is, and that he's worried now the GOP controls the House and has vowed to haul in the signatories and make them testify under oath. He's trying to pre-shape the narrative."
Devine added, "They were silent. That was the message they wished to convey, and now they are scrambling because the GOP House is about to hold them accountable."
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Sam Harris responds to online furor over his argument that the media should have covered up Hunter Biden laptop story
An atheist podcast known for criticizing Christianity and Islam responded to a social media furor over his comments, arguing that the media should have covered up the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Harris made the comments while a guest on the "TRIGGERnometry" show, which is sponsored by the Epoch Times. He argued that the media created Trump and that news outlets had a responsibility to help keep the former president from power, even to the point of obscuring the truth.
"Listen, I don't care what's in Hunter Biden's laptop, I mean, at that point, Hunter Biden literally could have had the corpses of children in his basement, I would not have cared," he declared.
"Whatever scope of Joe Biden's corruption is, if we could just go down that rabbit hole endlessly and understand that he's getting kickbacks from Hunter Biden's deals in Ukraine or wherever else, right, or China, it is infinitesimal compared to the corruption we know Trump is involved in," Harris explained.
"It's like a firefly to the sun, right?" he added.
Harris went on to say that that the media trying to shut down the Hunter Biden laptop story was a "leftwing conspiracy to deny the presidency to Donald Trump," and added, "Absolutely it was, absolutely, right. But I think it was warranted."
When one of the show's hosts pressed him about his statement, Harris said it didn't matter because Trump was such a great threat.
"If there was an asteroid hurdling toward Earth, and we got in a room together with all of our friends and had a conversation about what we could do to deflect its course – is that a conspiracy? Some of that conversation would be in public, some of it would be in private. We have a massive problem. We have an existential threat, right?" Harris explained.
"Politically speaking, I consider Donald Trump to be an existential threat to our democracy," he concluded.
Many saw the admission as an insight into the thinking of many in the media and popular culture when it comes to feigning objectivity about political stories that might be damaging to President Joe Biden.
'I was speaking narrowly'
Harris later explained on Twitter that he thought people were misunderstanding his claims.
"There is a podcast clip circulating that seems to be confusing many people about my views on Trump (which is understandable because I wasn’t speaking very clearly). So, for what it’s worth, here is what I was trying to say," tweeted Harris.
\u201cThere is a podcast clip circulating that seems to be confusing many people about my views on Trump (which is understandable because I wasn\u2019t speaking very clearly). So, for what it\u2019s worth, here is what I was trying to say: 1/6\u201d— Sam Harris (@Sam Harris) 1660848809
"I was essentially arguing for a principle of self-defense (where there’s a continuum of proportionate force that is appropriate and necessary to use). I’ve always viewed Trump as a very dangerous person to elect as president of a fake university," he argued, "let alone the US, and when he became a sitting president who would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power, I viewed him as more dangerous still. (However, I’ve never been under any illusion that he is Orange Hitler.)"
He went on to tweet that he was speaking narrowly about whether the media should have ignored the laptop story until after the election.
"Nothing I said on that podcast was meant to suggest that the Democrats would have been right to commit election fraud or take other illegal measures to deny Trump the presidency (nor do I think they did that)," he concluded.
Harris spoke on other topics during the podcast, including tribalism and how many people on the left exaggerate how many white officers shoot and kill unarmed black men in the United States.
Here's the full video of his comments:
Sam Harris: Trump, Religion, Wokenesswww.youtube.com
'That's why people don't trust the media': Bill Maher accuses left-wing media of burying Hunter Biden laptop story because it didn't fit their narrative
Liberal talk show Bill Maher host accused left-wing media outlets of burying the Hunter Biden laptop story.
Maher addressed how liberal media outlets are finally acknowledging the Hunter Biden laptop story that was first reported in October 2020 by the New York Post.
"I remember reading about this a couple of years ago, the New York Post came across… Hunter Biden's computer, which he apparently left at a computer repair store," Maher recalled.
Maher advised that Hunter Biden should never leave his computer with other people "just for the personal stuff" that was allegedly found on the laptop.
"But it also had stuff about how, you know, c'mon, he's a ne'er-do-well. I'm sorry, Hunter Biden, but you are," Maher remarked. "You made a living being ne'er-do-well who was taking money just because you were the vice president's son and you had influence."
"He got, I think $4.8, yes, million from Chinese energy companies to sit on the board and consult," Maher stated.
After reviewing government records, court documents, bank statements, and emails from Biden's laptop, the Washington Post confirmed this week that the Chinese energy conglomerate CEFC China Energy paid $4.8 million to entities controlled by Hunter Biden and his uncle, James Biden. The Chinese energy conglomerate paid a $1 million legal retainer and $3.8 million in consulting fees.
Maher joked, "Yeah, that was his passion in life: energy exploration. Hooker exploration was his passion."
Maher acknowledged, "So the New York Post got a hold of what was in the computer. And, you know, because the New York Post is a Republican paper, and the New York Times and the Washington Post are the Democratic paper[s]."
"And the Republican paper, Twitter… canceled their account! They can't even report on this story," Maher said in regards to the New York Post – a newspaper that was founded by Alexander Hamilton more than 220 years ago – being locked out of its official Twitter account for 16 days for sharing the Hunter Biden scandal accusations on social media.
He added, "And now two years later, the New York Times and the Washington Post have come around and say, ‘Okay, there was something there.'"
The New York Times finally authenticated key details in the Hunter Biden story last month.
Maher conceded that the Hunter Biden laptop story should have been taken with a "giant thing of salt" since the New York Post received the information from hardcore Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Steve Bannon.
Maher also noted that it shouldn't have taken "two years" to verify the accusations.
"It looks like the left-wing media just buried the story because it wasn't part of their narrative and that's why people don't trust the media," Maher said of the story that was censored and dismissed in the weeks leading up to the 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang was a guest on Friday night's "Real Time with Bill Maher," where he pointed out that trust in media "falls very sharply along party lines."
A Gallup poll from October found that 68% of Democrats had a "great deal" or "fair amount" of trust in the media, but that number plunges to 31% when it comes to independents, and only 11% of Republicans believe the media. Overall, 7% of Americans have "a great deal" and 29% "a fair amount" of trust and confidence in newspapers, television and radio news reporting. This is the lowest since the record low in 2016.
Yang stated, "This is part of the erosion of institutional trust, where one side feels like the media is on their side."
"And it does seem like this Hunter Biden laptop story did get buried because of the timing," he added. "I mean, it was coming out during the height of the election in 2020. And they did not want that out in the mainstream."
CNN legal analyst Laura Coates attempted to defend corporate media for ignoring the Hunter Biden scandal.
"I think it can also be about the idea of you know, one, the priorities that the media has about what stories to put forward. And sometimes it's tied to obviously what is in the national zeitgeist," Coates said. "Other times, it's according to what actually is there to report on? What is the new information that's going to better inform the population?"
"And of course, here we are in the world, as you well know, where not only do we have different slants for different media they are suggesting, but also you've got people who want these silos," Coates continued. "They just want echo chambers. We used to say things like… 'You're preaching to the choir.' Well, now it's, 'Why aren't you preaching to the choir? It's all I'm here for.' So you preach to as a member of the choir."
On Wednesday, CNN finally admitted that Hunter Biden's laptop is authentic – 532 days after the initial story broke. CNN was one of numerous legacy media outlets that dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal as "Russian disinformation."
At the time of the New York Post story went viral, Maher dismissed the allegations and passed off the accusations as something Donald Trump Jr. would do.
Here's how @BillMaher reacted to the Hunter Biden laptop story on his October 16, 2020 show:https://twitter.com/BrentHBaker/status/1510244281931477002\u00a0\u2026— Brent Baker \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6 (@Brent Baker \ud83c\uddfa\ud83c\udde6) 1648905522
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