An author of the now-debunked public statement from 51 intelligence officials casting doubt on the bombshell Hunter Biden laptop story revealed this month to Congress that Antony Blinken, then a senior adviser to the Biden campaign, was the impetus for the statement.
Former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell testified to the House Judiciary Committee on April 4 that now-Secretary of State Blinken called him about the laptop story just days after the New York Post published it and that the call “triggered” Morell to draft the statement.
The chairmen wrote that Morell testified in the closed-door interview with the committee that Blinken’s call to Morell was “couched as simply gathering Morrell’s reaction to the Post story” but that “it set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.”
Blinken, at the time, served as then-candidate Joe Biden’s “closest” foreign policy adviser, according to the New York Times.
The campaign paid Blinken more than $100,000 for his work in 2020, Federal Election Campaign records show.
The chairmen’s letter to Blinken included the below testimony from Morell to the committee:
Q: But, prior to [Secretary Blinken’s] call, you – you did not have any intent to write this statement?
A: I did not.
Q: Okay. So his call triggered –
A: It did, yes.
Q: – that intent in you?
A: Yes. Absolutely.
Read the full letter to Blinken here:
https://www.scribd.com/document/639727377/Jordan-Turner-Letter-to-Blinken?secret_password=QECOToqtC4kZSjV9Sgna#download&from_embed
The Post’s story, written by now-Breitbart News Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris, revealed weeks before the 2020 presidential election damning information about the Biden family’s business dealings based on information found on an abandoned laptop of Hunter’s that the Post had obtained.
Twitter notoriously immediately began blocking users from sharing the story, and Facebook suppressed it as well.
Amid fierce backlash from Republicans that the social media companies were censoring negative Biden information that was pertinent to the election, Politico reported that 51 former senior intelligence officials had signed onto a statement that the laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” bolstering those who found the now heavily corroborated story dubious.
The chairmen pointed out that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden relied on the statement from the intel officials in the final presidential debate on October 22, saying during the debate:
Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, [President Trump’s] accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said this 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.
Morell told the Judiciary Committee during his testimony that he also communicated with other Biden campaign officials and that the campaign sought to help coordinate the public dissemination of the statement.
The campaign, for instance, requested the intel officials release the statement through a specific reporter at the Washington Post, according to an email between Morell and another signatory on the statement.
Morell also told the committee his two motives for publishing the statement were to “share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue” and to help Biden win the election.
“Based on Morrell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story,” the chairmen wrote, charging that the statement served to prevent “American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election.”
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