Hunter Biden investigation: Blinken may have played a bigger role in letter to discredit laptop
Jerry Dunleavy
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken may have played a larger role than previously known in creating a letter in October 2020 that was used by Joe Biden to shut down negative stories about his son Hunter Biden‘s abandoned laptop.
Congressional testimony released Monday provided new details on Blinken’s involvement in bringing more than 50 ex-intelligence officials to sign a letter suggesting Hunter Biden laptop stories were nothing but a product of Russian disinformation — a baseless narrative seized upon by the president’s 2020 campaign.
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The testimony revealed that James Clapper, a former director of national intelligence under President Barack Obama, told House investigators that former Obama CIA director John Brennan, another laptop letter signer, told him “that Tony Blinken had reached out to Michael [Morell] about putting together a public statement.”
The letter from ex-intelligence officials aimed to discredit the New York Post’s reporting on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop hard drive just days before Joe Biden’s presidential debate with then-President Donald Trump.
That account from Clapper suggests a more active role for Blinken than Morell, the former acting CIA director under Obama, previously described.
Morell said in a transcribed interview with congressional investigators earlier this year that, before his Oct. 17, 2020, phone call with Blinken, he had no intention to write the Oct. 19 Hunter Biden laptop letter and testified “yes” and “absolutely” when asked if the call with Blinken, who was then a top adviser for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, was what “triggered that intent in you.”
The Monday revelations came from a new letter from Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, that contained additional testimony from Clapper hinting that Blinken may have done more than just trigger the letter’s creation.
It was also revealed Monday that Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA operations officer who assisted Morell in drafting the letter, testified to Jordan and Turner that Morell “did mention to me that someone in the kind of Biden world had asked about doing this.”
“Morell said to me that someone from kind of the Bidenworld has asked for this,” Polymeropoulos testified. “And he did not tell me who it was or any other kinds of details of it.”
Morell previously testified that it was his “guess” that Blinken called him to talk about the Hunter Biden laptop because the future secretary of state wanted it “out” in public that “the Russians were somehow involved” in the saga.
One of the two reasons Morell said he helped put the letter together was to help now-President Biden defeat Trump.
Blinken himself contended in May that “I didn’t — it wasn’t my idea, didn’t ask for it, didn’t solicit it, and I think the testimony that the former deputy director of the CIA, Mike Morrell, put forward confirms that.”
Jordan and Turner had sent Blinken a letter in April asking him to identify everyone with whom he “communicated about the inception, drafting, editing, signing, publishing, or promotion” of the laptop letter and to “produce all documents and communications” related to the laptop letter.
The congressmen said Monday they received a May letter from Blinken’s attorney, but so far, the secretary of state has been “unresponsive to our request.”
Jordan and Turner asked Blinken to hand over the requested material by June 26, warning that “the committees may consider the use of compulsory process if these requests remain outstanding beyond that date.” The compulsory process means Blinken faces the threat of a subpoena.
The duo has unearthed a host of new details about the laptop letter, including that the goal of the letter was to give now-President Joe Biden a “talking point” to deploy against Trump in their final presidential debate.
Jordan and Turner accused Blinken on Monday of setting up a “strawman argument” when his lawyer claimed that he “did not solicit the letter in question.” The congressmen said, “We, however, did not allege in our letter that you solicited the statement” but rather “revealed how your outreach to Mr. Morell set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.”
Joe Biden pointed to the laptop letter during the Oct. 22, 2020, debate after Trump brought up “the laptop from hell” in reference to Hunter Biden’s lucrative business dealings tied to Ukraine and China.
“There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said that this has all the characteristics — four, five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage,” Joe Biden said.
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Trump replied, “You mean the laptop is now another Russia, Russia, Russia hoax?” Joe Biden replied, “That’s exactly what we’re told.” Trump lamented, “Here we go again with Russia.”
Konstantinos “Gus” Dimitrelos, a cyber forensics expert and former Secret Service agent, conducted an examination of the laptop for the Washington Examiner last year, concluding, “My analysis revealed there is a 100% certainty that Robert Hunter Biden was the only person responsible for the activity on this hard drive and all of its stored data,” and that “the hard drive is authentic.”