Former CIA director says he had agents ‘help Biden’ campaign

A retired CIA chief coordinated a letter from former intelligence chiefs claiming that Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation because he wanted to help Joe Biden in the presidential campaign.

Mike Morell told the House Judiciary Committee he was asked by Antony Blinken, the Secretary of State — who was a senior member of the Biden campaign at the time — to discredit the laptop reporting.

Morell was a former acting CIA director, serving for two months in 2011 and four months from 2012 to 2013. He retired from the CIA in September 2013.

The House Judiciary Committee, led by Jim Jordan, is currently investigating Hunter Biden’s laptop, as well as Biden’s family businesses.

Morell “recently” conducted a transcribed interview with Jordan’s team and was asked about the response of the Biden campaign to the laptop.

Hunter Biden is seen with his father Joe and aunt Valerie in Dublin on April 14

Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, examines Hunter Biden’s laptop

The laptop, which was left in a Delaware repair shop, was touted by Rudy Giuliani, Donald Trump’s attorney, as evidence of alleged corruption within the Biden family.

The Biden campaign said the efforts to disclose the laptop’s contents bore the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign.

The laptop contained explicit photos of the troubled Hunter Biden naked, prostituting and using drugs, as well as multiple emails and texts between Hunter and his father.

Morell said he was asked by Blinken to gather former intelligence chiefs to agree that the laptop looked like a smear campaign.

Morell said he did “a little bit of my own research,” and then contacted retired CIA senior operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos for help drafting the letter.

The letter was eventually signed by of 51 former intelligence officials, including himself and four other former CIA directors, including John Brennan and Leon Panetta.

The letter was published by Politico five days after The New York Post first reported on the contents of the laptop.

The headline of Politico’s story, on October 19, 2020, was “Hunter Biden’s story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former officials say.”

The letter claimed The New York Post’s story “has all the classic hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation.”

Several media outlets, including DailyMail.com, have since confirmed the contents of the laptop and that it belonged to Hunter Biden.

Photo of a Hunter Biden laptop left at a computer repair shop

A photo found on the laptop left by Hunter Biden. Jordan and other House Republicans believe the claims made in the letter signed by Morell were a “joint effort” to discredit the damning information on Hunter’s laptop.

Hunter Biden is photographed at the White House on July 7, 2022

Joe Biden used the letter during the Oct. 22 debate against Donald Trump, saying he believed the coverage surrounding his son’s abandoned computer was the work of Russia.

Morell was thanked for his work coordinating the letter, with Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti calling him after the debate to thank him.

Morell would then be considered for the role of CIA director – a job that eventually went to William Burns.

Morell, who has been a consultant, strategist, lecturer and author since his firing nearly a decade ago, said he was never formally in talks for the role.

On Thursday, Jordan and Michael Turner, the chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, wrote a letter to Blinken requesting his communications with Morell regarding the laptop.

They issued a statement accusing Morell and the other intelligence chiefs of “coordinated efforts to minimize and suppress information detrimental to the Biden campaign.”

“Based on Morell’s testimony, it is clear that the Biden campaign played an active role in crafting the public statement, which had the effect of suppressing the Hunter Biden narrative and deterring American citizens from making a fully informed statement. decision during the 2020 presidential election campaign,” they wrote.

While the statement’s signatories have an undisputed right to freedom of speech and free association — which we do not dispute — their reference to their national security credentials strengthened the story and suggested access to specialized information unavailable to other Americans.

“This concerted effort to minimize and suppress the public dissemination of the grave allegations against the Biden family has been a grave disservice to the informed participation of all American citizens in our democracy.”