Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has claimed that then-presidential candidate Joe Biden misled Americans regarding the letter signed by 51 intelligence officials that alleged that Hunter Biden’s laptop contained Russian disinformation.
Subsequent reporting confirmed that the laptop wasn’t part of a Russian disinformation campaign but had been abandoned at a computer repair shop in Delaware.
Jordan recounted the timeline of events, starting by saying that the story about the laptop came out on Oct. 14, 2020, and included facts about the “Biden business operation” and whether then-presidential candidate Joe Biden was involved.
“Then quickly it turns into this political operation,” he said. “That letter that became the basis for suppressing the story and keeping it from the American people [was released] just days before the most important election we have.
“[On] the 14th, the [New York] Post has a story. The 17th, Tony Blinken ... contacts Mike Morell and gets him interested in this. Mike Morell looks at it the next day, organizes on the 18th all these other people to sign the letter. The 19th, the letter goes out.”
Morell has since testified before Jordan’s committee and the House Intelligence Committee that Antony Blinken, then a Biden campaign adviser, was “the impetus” behind the creation of the October 2020 letter.
Jordan noted that Morell played a key role in gathering signatures for the letter before Oct. 22, 2020, which was the date of the NBC presidential debate. It gave Biden a ready answer when, as expected, then-President Donald Trump brought up the laptop issue.
“It was a total political operation, and the most important fact is [the letter] was false,” Jordan said. “[The laptop] wasn’t Russian disinformation. The laptop story looks to be true.”
Along with Morell, signatories included Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan, Bush-era CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former CIA Chief of Staff Jeremy Bash, and former National Intelligence Council Chair Thomas Fingar.
A State Department spokesperson responded at an April 21 briefing to The Epoch Times’ question on the subject, saying this is “not a State Department issue” and that the department wouldn’t comment.
White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations Ian Sams responded to The Epoch Times’ request for comment on Jordan’s assertions by saying House Republicans are “weaponizing their power to go after their political opponents and [trying to] re-litigate the 2020 election with misleading claims” instead of dealing with issues more important to the American people.
“The American people see these House GOP attacks for what they are: political stunts intended to hurt President Biden,“ Sams said. ”And House Republicans would be wise to instead focus on doing their job, raising the debt ceiling to avoid an economic catastrophe, and working together with the president to make actual progress on important issues.”
