Outrage as report says 2020 letter signees were CIA workers when they dismissed Hunter laptop story as Russian disinformation

WASHINGTON, DC: Some of the 51 top spies were reportedly working as active CIA contractors when they asserted in a public letter that the files from Hunter Biden's laptop bore "the classic earmarks" of Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

According to records obtained by the New York Post, the agency was aware of this fact.

The former CIA acting director Michael Morell, who admitted to Congress that he orchestrated the October 19, 2020, letter to provide President Joe Biden with a "talking point" ahead of a debate with then-President Donald Trump, was under contract with the CIA at the time, as confirmed by the agency to Congress.

According to an interim report from two House committees investigating the matter, ex-agency inspector general David Buckley was also an active contractor when the letter was made public.

Records indicate that at least two other signatories of the aforementioned public letter may have also been under active contracts at the time. The terms of the contracts and compensation were not immediately clear.

What did former CIA acting director Michael Morell say regarding the allegations brought against him?

Ex-CIA acting director Michael Morell refuted that he was a contractor when contacted by The Post. In an email on Tuesday, June 25, he wrote, "If you write that, you would [be] wrong."

Morell reiterated his position in a second email, expressing that "I can't" speculate on why the agency he once led listed him as a contractor and insisting that "it’s wrong."

The CIA's document revealing Morell's status as an active contractor after his denial was provided to the publication by a congressional source.

Robert Dugas, CIA deputy general counsel for litigation and investigations, disclosed this information in an April 25 letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-Ohio).

Dugas included a five-name table listing Morell and Buckley as active CIA contractors on the date of the laptop letter, along with a note that read, "I write to provide a UNCLASSIFIED document related to your... letters seeking information."

"The evidence in our report speaks for itself and it seems that the spy who lied is continuing to do so," asserted Russell Dye, a spokesman for the Judiciary Committee, on Tuesday evening.

The list of five names indicated Morell's active role as a CIA contractor, and it specified that former CIA Director John Brennan and other letter signatories, Nick Rasmussen and Marc Polymeropoulos, were not part of the same arrangement.

The letter, which suggested that laptop files connecting President Biden to his relatives' foreign business were Russian disinformation, only referred to the signatories as "former" intelligence operatives.

Internal records indicate that the document was controversial within the CIA.

Although the Hatch Act prohibits most CIA employees from participating in partisan political activities, the rules regarding contractors are unclear.

For instance, a 2015 intelligence community directive on contract personnel does not address this issue.

Another table provided by the CIA to Congress shows the letter signers who had contracts and "green badge" access with the agency, indicating that other signatories had formal relationships with the ones mentioned above.

This table indicates that Morell's contract expired at some point after October 19, 2020, and that he entered into a new contract on May 1, 2021, in the capacity of an "independent contractor" with a "no fee senior advisory services" role.

His colleague at Beacon Global Strategies, letter signatory Jeremy Bash, is also identified in the second table as an "independent contractor" and serving as a "contractor/green badge" holder from April 2, 2019, through April 1, 2022, with a brief break before starting a new contract in August 2022.

Another letter signer, former National Security Agency deputy director Richard Ledgett, was also listed as having the same status at the time of the letter.

These details are included in an interim report by the House Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.

The report also reveals that then-CIA Director Gina Haspel likely knew about the letter when it was submitted for review.

What does the interim report by the House Intelligence Committee and the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee reveal?

"The new information included in this report, based on new testimony and declassified documents, shows the potential dangers of a politicized intelligence community," stated the House panels' interim report, adding, "Some of the signatories of the statement were on the CIA payroll at the time as contractors and others had special access to CIA facilities."

It further added, "Even Michael Morell — before the Committees learned of his contract with the CIA — acknowledged, 'It’s inappropriate for a currently serving staff officer or contractor to be involved in the political process.' Due to purported operational concerns, the CIA declined to declassify the entire universe of signatories who were on active contract."

During his second and final 2020 presidential debate with then-President Trump, Biden, who was a Democratic presidential candidate at the time, referenced the intelligence alumni letter to dismiss the New York Post's coverage of his involvement in his family's international business dealings as "Russian plant" and "garbage."

"There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant," said Biden of Trump at the time, continuing, "Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani."

The first son's laptop came into the possession of the FBI in 2019 before a copy of the hard drive was provided to the New York Post in 2020.

On the day of the initial bombshell reporting, the FBI informed Twitter (now X) that the laptop was authentic, although the bureau’s position on the matter was not widely known until after the 2020 election.

Morell testified to Congress in 2023 that he decided to organize the letter after getting a call from future Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is a long-time adviser to President Biden.

The first laptop bombshell from The Post, which was published five days before the 51-person letter, revealed that Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive at the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, emailed Hunter in 2015 to express gratitude for the "opportunity to meet your father."

This directly contradicted Biden's 2019 claim that he had "never spoken" with his son about "his overseas business dealings."

The Biden campaign vaguely denied the meeting, but further reporting confirmed key details, including the fact that the POTUS attended a 2015 DC dinner one day before the Burisma executive's email.

A group of his son’s associates, including Pozharskyi and a trio from Kazakhstan that posed for a photo with the Bidens, also attended the meeting. 

The first son reportedly earned up to $1 million per year for serving on Burisma’s board from 2014 to 2019, starting when his father led the Ukraine policy under the Obama administration.

The second October 2020 bombshell from the aforementioned news outlet, published four days before the nonpartisan group of spies' statement, detailed communications regarding Hunter and his uncle James Biden’s involvement with Chinese state-linked CEFC China Energy.

An email from the laptop dated May 13, 2017, stated that the "big guy" would receive 10% of the CEFC deal. Former Biden family associate Rob Walker testified to Congress that President Biden met with the company’s chairman Ye Jianming before the money started to flow earlier that year.

The CIA issued a statement on Tuesday night that did not provide further details on the agency contracts with "former" officeholders who signed the letter.

The focus of the agency's statement was mainly on defending the pre-publication review process, which inspected the statement for classified information and found none, allowing for its public release.

"CIA officers, as a condition of their employment, are required to sign a secrecy agreement that includes a lifelong obligation to submit any and all intelligence-related materials to CIA’s Pre-Publication Review Board (PCRB) before they are published. That process was followed in this case," explained a CIA spokesperson.

They added, "The PCRB reviews material to determine if they contain any classified information. The PCRB’s confirmation that information is unclassified is never an endorsement of the reviewed content or its veracity. These former officers were not speaking for CIA."

Internet fumes as a House interim report claims signatories of letter dismissing Hunter Biden's laptop story were at the time under CIA contracts

Netizens didn't mince their words while criticizing the signatories of the 2020 public letter who were reportedly active CIA contractors at the time. 

One commented, "This act or instance of all of these former intelligence agents putting together a document and injecting it into the public discourse requires its own documentary, and much further study. It will go down in history as quite an act."

They added, "A potentially treasonous act where personal politics, and not a product of the intelligence agency, shows that gathering a number of high profile past government workers can produce a piece of propaganda to swing an election. It is no small act."

"If you change the name, Biden to Trump in the story. The media would be calling Trump, a dictator who uses his intelligence agencies for his political benefit. However, in this situation, the media was complicit and more than happy to spread this misinformation," said another. 

A person noted, "This was the real insurrection. A coordinated, massive disinformation campaign designed to overthrow a sitting president carried out by media, government intelligence agencies, and politicians," and someone else added, "They all need to have their security clearances yanked. Today. Then they can be on the receiving end of lawfare. They deserve it."

One more argued, "How is this okay with anyone? So the Dems can put out disinformation that impacts an election and we're supposed to ignore it? This sounds like more of an insurrection than J6."

"So basically we’re talking about a CIA coup with an assist by the FBI. ALL OF THOSE 51 need long prison terms," remarked another person

This article contains remarks made on the Internet by individual people and organizations. MEAWW cannot confirm them independently and does not support claims or opinions being made online.