Recent revelations have shown that the effort to suppress a 2020 story about Hunter Biden’s laptop was likely deeper than originally thought.
A number of different sources confirm that prominent American officials, including current Secretary of State Antony Blinken and possibly the CIA, were involved in the crafting and dissemination of a letter calling Hunter Biden’s laptop Russian disinformation.
Former National Intelligence Officer for Cyber Chris Porter told Fox News that there was “no evidence” in 2020 that the laptop belonging to President Joe Biden’s son was “Russian disinformation.”
He said that while there was concern over possible foreign involvement, “that doesn’t make it appropriate for senior officials to throw their weight into domestic politics by insinuation without clear and compelling evidence.”
This testimony also backs recent reporting that members of the CIA may have been involved in collecting signatures for the letter.
The information was released by a report from the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on the laptop.
The congressional inquiry, led by House Republicans, determined that former CIA Director Michael Morrell had been the driving force behind the letter.
🚨🚨BREAKING: The CIA actively promoted and solicited signatures for the Biden campaign's infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter, blockbuster congressional testimony shows. https://t.co/t3HqRGBs6k
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) May 9, 2023
Morell had denied working with the intelligence agency on the letter, but did ask an agency within the CIA for approval, stating at the time that it was a “rush job as it needs to get out as soon as possible.”
Twitter and other social media outlets punished the New York Post over its story on the laptop.
Twitter suspended the New York daily over its story and demanded that it delete six related tweets. Months after the controversy, and after the 2020 election was settled, Twitter admitted it had made a mistake.
The intelligence effort could ultimately be rated as successful. The letter and related evidence did not disprove the laptop’s contents, but it may have been a tipping point in the 2020 election.
In the 2020 race, Biden did receive more votes than Hillary Clinton four years earlier, but the election was decided by a narrower margin in state-by-state victories than in 2016.
If the laptop story’s burying affected a small percentage of Americans’ votes, it may have tipped the election to then-President Donald Trump.