House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) on March 2 called for the 51 former intelligence agents who signed a 2020 letter dismissing Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation to lose their security clearance.
While speaking during the second day of the Conservative Political Action Committee annual conference just outside of Washington, Jordan suggested that this end could be secured via legislative means. The issue at hand revolves around the laptop of Hunter Biden, President Joe Biden’s only living son.
Just before the 2020 election, the New York Post published a story on Hunter Biden’s laptop, which the younger Biden left at a computer repair shop and never picked up.
The Bidens’ business dealings have faced heavy GOP scrutiny due to the possibility that the elder Biden peddled his influence to help his son.
After several attempts to contact Biden to pick the laptop up, the computer repair shop owner, John Paul Mac Isaac, investigated its contents.
He found these included several photos of Hunter Biden in sexual situations, sometimes with people who appeared to be substantially younger than 18. Others showed the president’s son using drugs such as crack cocaine. Still other sections of the laptop’s contents raised questions about the Bidens’ business dealings, with some emails and texts suggesting that Hunter Biden may have peddled his father’s prestige and influence for financial gain.
Since the original story’s publication, its authenticity has been verified.
After the New York Post published the story, 51 former intelligence officials signed a letter claiming that the laptop story had “all the earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Now, Jordan is calling for these 51 former intelligence officials to lose their security clearance for the false claim that the laptop was a fake.
“I would bet every one of those intel officials who signed that letter—that now famous letter—I would bet every one of them still has a security clearance,” Jordan told the crowd gathered in Maryland.
He suggested that pecuniary and professional motives may have encouraged some of the signatories.
“Why? I think it’s for their personal benefit, I think that’s something that has value and frankly they probably made money off of the idea.
“Many are contributors are TV networks,” Jordan added.
“Why should they have a security clearance?” Jordan asked to a round of applause from the crowd.
The House Judiciary chairman also called on his party to take up legislation to potentially strip the signatories of their security clearance.
With Republicans back in control of the House of Representatives, Jordan is leading a series of GOP investigations into issues ranging from the weaponization of federal law enforcement, the true origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, and possible influence-peddling by the Bidens.
Jordan’s proposed bill stripping the 51 signatories of their security clearance could make it through the House fairly easily through a party-line vote.
In the Senate, however, such legislation would face tougher hurdles. Like almost every bill that comes to the upper chamber, it would need the support of at least 60 senators—meaning at least 11 Democrats and all Republicans—to pass.
It would also need Biden’s signature.
