The wheels of justice turn slowly enough that calling them rusted may be an understatement. In the case of Congressional investigations, they may rotate even less, with the realization of things culminating in anything approaching punishment a long shot, at best. That said, there is at least a glimmer of hope of accountability being realized in a long-simmering issue with the last general election.
As our Managing Editor Jennifer Van Laar reported, a bombshell report was released Tuesday by the House Judiciary Committee related to the "51 former intelligence officials" letter alleging that allegations surrounding the Hunter Biden Laptop From Hell "had all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation." A press release from the House Intelligence Committee summarizes some of the alarming findings:
The report reveals new information detailing how the highest levels of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), up to and including then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails” by 51 former intelligence officials prior to its approval and publication. The report reveals important new facts, such as how some of the statement's signatories, including former Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell, were on active contract with the CIA at the time they issued the Hunter Biden statement to discredit damaging allegations about Biden family influence peddling just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
This is not a shocking discovery, but the report contains the receipts of the manipulation and shows specifics of how things transpired. Even while there was conflict and opposition within the agency, the ability to still move quickly to advance the plan to aid Biden and/or impact Donald Trump is revealing. In addition, the most disqualifying aspect of the whole laptop fable is how the CIA was working in concert with the FBI on behalf of the Biden campaign. We have learned that the intelligence community went to social media companies and instructed the executives on how they should treat any mention of the laptop as a Russian misinformation campaign.
However, let's not forget how involved the lapdog media and social media companies were in the ruse, not questioning the veracity of the letter or the motivations of its signatories, and, for the purported journalists specifically, no critical look at the relationships between the signatories and the Biden campaign or other deep state actors.
Mark Zuckerberg alluded to communications he received from the Bureau that the story was misinformation, and as a result, he limited the reach of the now-proven New York Post story. This took place in the fall of 2020, despite the FBI coming into possession of Hunter’s laptop the previous December; the crude irony became that the FBI intentionally delivered that false storyline in the name of battling misinformation.
At least one employee found it “[i]nteresting to see what was submitted and approved” when discussing media talking points that the statement’s co-author, former Senior Intelligence Service Officer Marc Polymeropoulos, submitted related to the statement. When discussing Polymeropoulos’s talking points, another CIA official stated, “It appears [Polymeropoulos] is actively involved in a pro-Biden campaign and may be disclosing classified information in his efforts.”
There was also the revelation that the letter was created specifically with the intent of giving Joe Biden the needed defense during the soon-to-be-held presidential debate with Donald Trump.
The 51 former intelligence officials’ Hunter Biden statement was a blatant political operation from the start. It originated with a call from top Biden campaign official—and now Secretary of State—Antony Blinken to former Deputy Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Michael Morell. The Committees’ investigation revealed that without this outreach from Blinken, Morell would not have written the statement. Indeed, Morell told the Committees that the Blinken phone call “triggered” his intent to write the statement. The statement’s drafters were open about the goal of the project: “[W]e think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate” and “we want to give the [Vice President] a talking point to use in response.”
Then, adding to the coordination, there is also a detail involving the press and the release of this letter. The initial announcement of that 51-name rebuttal letter came from Natasha Bertrand at Politico. (She is currently the intelligence correspondent at CNN.) Bertrand’s report kicked off the media wildfire of reporting on the letter as opposed to the laptop itself. The paradox was in the press discrediting the Hunter laptop due to a lack of its veracity, but promoting that “disqualifying” letter, absent anything beyond the signatories stating it displays “earmarks of a Russian information operation.” They avoided a provable laptop and pimped a merit-free piece of propaganda.
This piece from Bertrand was a hall pass for the media and a gift-wrapped talking point for Biden despite her knowing full well it was a false story. Prior to publication, Bertrand was told directly by Cliff Sims, then Deputy Director of National Intelligence, that there was no intelligence to support this Russian ruse. Politico ran the story anyway. Over a week later, Bertrand ran another report on Sims' boss, John Ratcliffe, and how he appeared to be countering the agency. Sims then went to Bertrand’s editor, Blake Hounsell, to complain about the false information pushed by his reporter, but Hounsell instead fought back and kept the fake narrative going.
The way this collusion played out — between the CIA, FBI, Biden Campaign, and the press — is essentially the Deep State laid bare. The sad truth and depth of this is seen in the massive difficulty in bringing anything approaching accountability to bear for any of this for anyone involved. This is a massive example of manipulating an election result, but all of those shown as guilty are the same players today, bleating about the threats to our democracy.