Hunter Biden laptop letter recruitment email wanted to give Joe Biden a debate ‘talking point’
Jerry Dunleavy
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EXCLUSIVE – A recruitment email sent by Mike Morell, co-author of the infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter, wanted former intelligence officials to become signatories to help give Joe Biden a “talking point” during a crucial presidential debate against Donald Trump.
The revelation comes after Morell, the former Obama CIA acting director, admitted that now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken “triggered” him to write the October 2020 laptop letter.
The recruitment email from Morell was sent to former intelligence officials and included the laptop letter co-authored by him and former senior CIA operations officer Marc Polymeropoulos as an attachment.
The quoted language from the Morell email, sent on Oct. 18, 2020, was read to the Washington Examiner verbatim and identically by two independent sources who had access to the email.
Morell’s email explained that both he and Polymeropoulos believed Russia was involved in the Hunter Biden laptop stories and that Trump likely planned to attack Biden over the laptop revelations in the upcoming debate.
“We want to give the VP a talking point to use in response,” Morell wrote, the two sources confirmed to the Washington Examiner.
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Morell has previously testified that one of the reasons he helped put the letter together was to help Joe Biden “because I wanted him to win the election.”
Mark Zaid, an attorney representing Polymeropoulos and a number of other laptop letter signers, also told the media last month that “when the draft was sent out to people to sign, the cover email made clear that it was an effort to help the Biden campaign.”
Fifty-one ex-intelligence officials signed the laptop letter, which was published on Oct. 19, 2020, three days before the debate, and contributed to the baseless narrative that the laptop stories were a product of Russian disinformation — a narrative seized upon by Biden’s 2020 campaign and spread by some of the laptop letter signers.
Biden referenced the letter during the debate after Trump brought up “the laptop from hell” and referenced 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.
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.”
A few days later, the then-Democratic candidate made similar claims during a 60 Minutes interview when asked if he believed the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Last month it was revealed Morell told House investigators he had no intention to write the laptop letter, but admitted his phone call with Blinken, then a top advisor for Biden’s 2020 campaign, “triggered” him to do so. Morell said it was his “guess” Blinken called him because the future secretary of state wanted it “out” in public that “the Russians were somehow involved.”
House Republicans wrote that the same day of the Blinken-Morell call, Blinken “also emailed Morell an article” published in USA Today which alleged the FBI was examining whether the laptop was part of a Russian “disinformation campaign.” The article was then cited in the laptop letter.
Reps. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Mike Turner (R-OH) also said Morell received a call from then-Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti after the presidential debate to thank him for “putting the statement out.”
The phone call to Morell had come from Jeremy Bash, another laptop letter signer, who then got Richetti on the line. Bash, a former chief of staff at the CIA and Pentagon, was picked by Biden to be part of the President’s Intelligence Advisory Board last year. Bash suggested on TV in October 2020 that the laptop story was “Russian disinformation.”
The October 2020 letter repeatedly contended there was Russian involvement with the laptop stories, arguing that “if we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election” and expressing “our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue.” The letter claimed the laptop saga “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” and that “our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
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Then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe argued in October 2020 that there was “no intelligence” to support that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
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 “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.”