Tag: hunter biden

“It Needs to Get Out As Soon As Possible” – New FOIA Emails Reveal CIA Panicking as They Rushed Approval of Hunter Laptop Letter

New FOIA emails obtained by Conservative watchdog group Judicial Watch show the CIA panicking and making sure all hands were on deck to stop the Hunter Biden laptop from hell spreading like wildfire shortly before the 2020 election.

In October of 2020 – just days before the presidential election – 51 former intelligence officials signed and published a letter that baselessly decried the contents of Hunter’s ‘laptop from hell’ had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

This was a lie.  They all knew it was a lie. The fake news media ran with the story anyway.

Mike Morell, former CIA acting director under Obama immediately sent out an email making sure the infamous Hunter laptop letter by the 51 spies who lied was approved.

“This is a rush job, as it needs to get out as soon as possible,” Morell wrote in an email on Monday, October 19, 2020, at 6:36 a.m., to the CIA’s Publications Classification Review Board (PCRB) with a copy to Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA senior intelligence officer.

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CONFIRMED: Evidence Proves BOTH the FBI and CIA Were Deeply Involved in the Historic 2020 Election Lie that Hunter Biden’s Laptop Was Russian Propaganda

The House Judiciary Committee released information on Tuesday that revealed that CIA contractors colluded with the Biden campaign in 2020 to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop.

In October 2020, just days before the presidential election, 51 former intelligence officials signed and published a letter that baselessly decried the contents of Hunter’s ‘laptop from hell’ had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

This was a lie.  They all knew it was a lie. The fake news media ran with the story anyway. And the fake news even used it during the debate to bash President Trump.

On Tuesday, the House Judiciary Committee released these details, as reported earlier by Cristina Laila.

● High ranking CIA officials, up to and including then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the Hunter Biden statement prior to its approval and publication. Because several former senior intelligence officials signed the statement, the PCRB sent the draft statement to the CIA’s then-Chief Operating Officer (COO) Andrew Makridis, who said he subsequently informed then-Director Haspel or thenDeputy Director Vaughn Frederick Bishop that the statement would be published soon. Senior CIA leadership had an opportunity at that time to slow down the CIA’s process for reviewing publication submissions and ensure that such an extraordinary statement was properly vetted.

● Some of the statement’s signatories, including Michael Morell, were on active contract with the CIA at the time of the Hunter Biden statement’s publication. Throughout the course of the Committees’ investigation, the signatories claimed to not have had access to any classified information when asserting that the allegations surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the hallmarks” of Russian disinformation.

However, at the time of the statement’s publication, at least two signatories—Morell and former CIA Inspector General David Buckley—were on the CIA’s payroll as contractors. Due to purported operational concerns, the CIA declined to declassify the entire universe of signatories who were on active contract. In addition, some signatories to the Hunter Biden statement also had special “Green Card” access to the CIA at the time of the statement’s publication, allowing them to gain entry to secure CIA facilities.

● After publication of the Hunter Biden statement, CIA employees internally expressed concern about the statement’s politicized content, acknowledging it was not “helpful to the Agency in the long run.” 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.” The CIA’s internal review board, known as the Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB), determined that Polymeropoulos’s talking points contained classified information that had to be removed prior to publication.

“The new information included in this report, based on new testimony and declassified documents, shows the potential dangers of a politicized intelligence community. In the waning days before the 2020 presidential election, 51 intelligence community officials rushed to draft and release a statement using their official titles, presumably to convey access to specialized information unavailable to other Americans. The statement was conceived following a conversation with a senior Biden campaign official and designed explicitly to provide talking points to the Biden campaign to discredit politically damaging allegations. Some of the signatories of the statement were on the CIA payroll at the time as contractors and others had special access to CIA facilities. Even Michael Morell—before the Committees learned of his contract with the CIA—acknowledged, “It’s inappropriate for a currently serving staff officer or contractor to be involved in the political process,” the House Judiciary Committee said.

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The Washington Post Makes Last Plea to Keep the Laptop “Conspiracy Theory” Alive

Across the media, journalists have recognized that the Hunter Biden laptop is authentic and, as established early by American intelligence agencies, not “Russian disinformation.” With the authentication of the laptop in the Delaware trial as “real” and untampered, most media has chosen to walk away with a slightly embarrassed shrug. Not the Washington Post. Its columnist, Philip Bump, was one of the most prominent purveyors of what the U.S. government now calls a “conspiracy theory.” This week, Bump ran another column to assure liberals that they were right all along about the laptop story.

In 2021, when media organizations were finally admitting that the laptop was authentic, Bump was still declaring that it was a “conspiracy theory.” Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, Bump continued to suggest that “the laptop was seeded by Russian intelligence.”

After Bump had a meltdown in an interview when confronted over past false claims, I wrote a column about the litany of such false claims, including the laptop conspiracy theory.

The Post surprised many of us by issuing a statement that they stood by all of Bump’s reporting, including the laptop conspiracy theory. That was in August 2023.

Well, Bump is back.

In his column, Bump takes after various people calling the media to account for burying this story before and after the election, including myself.

In hitting Sean Hannity for a recent segment, Bump makes a common evasion among laptop deniers:

“One is that he is conflating the laptop presented as evidence at the trial, the one obtained by the FBI in 2019, with the ‘laptop’ that was the source of the New York Post story.”

For those of us who have covered the laptop since the story ran at the New York Post, it is as maddening as it is mendacious.

At the time of the story, some of us noted that the contents of the laptop could be confirmed since these emails and messages involved third parties. Some quickly confirmed the contents as authentic. The Bidens had long been accused of influence peddling and special dealing off of Joe Biden’s positions as senator, vice president, and president.

Moreover, as the media was referencing the debunked letter of former intelligence officials on this possible likely Russian disinformation, American intelligence quickly confirmed that there was no such evidence to support that claim.

The media ignored the actual intelligence agencies in favor of former intelligence officials who were organized by Biden campaign operatives to release the letter. Biden then cited the letter to refuse to answer questions about his son’s influence peddling and unlawful conduct.

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Biden Stumbles Through Anti-Gun Speech After Son’s Gun Conviction

On Tuesday afternoon, President Joe Biden addressed the “Gun Sense University” of the pro-gun control group “Everytown for Gun Safety” in his first speech since his son’s conviction on three felony weapons charges. 

Biden visibly struggled throughout the speech, stammering and mixing up words. 

Biden made a number of demonstrably false claims during his speech, for instance claiming that he was a professor at UPenn who taught a constitutional law class on the Second Amendment.

Biden also claimed that last year saw a massive decrease in crime, which ignores that agencies such as the massive police departments of Los Angeles and New York, as well as over 90 percent of agencies in Florida and Pennsylvania, have not yet submitted their data to the FBI, leaving the full picture of the current public safety environment incomplete. 

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GOP Congressman Says ‘Millions Of Marijuana Users’ Own Guns And Shouldn’t Face Prosecution Like Hunter Biden Did

Two Republican congressmen are challenging the basis of the conviction of President Joe Biden’s son Hunter for purchasing a gun while being a consumer of illegal drugs, with one pointing out that there are “millions of marijuana users” who own guns but should not be prosecuted.

After a federal jury found Hunter Biden guilty of three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm while being a user of crack cocaine on Tuesday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) said he “might deserve to be in jail for something, but purchasing a gun is not it.”

“There are millions of marijuana users who own guns in this country, and none of them should be in jail for purchasing or possessing a firearm against current laws,” the congressman said.

This past December, attorneys for Hunter Biden called on a federal court to dismiss the case against their client based on a similar principle, arguing that prosecutors are applying an unconstitutional statute that would criminalize millions of marijuana consumers acting in compliance with state law if broadly enforced.

The federal statute banning people who use cannabis from buying or possessing firearms has been challenged in multiple federal courts over recent years, with one case pending a review in the U.S. Supreme Court.

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Obama’s James Clapper Refuses To Retract His 2020 Characterization of Hunter Biden’s Laptop

James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration, has stated that he still will not retract the letter he and 50 other intelligence officials signed before the 2020 election about Hunter Biden’s laptop calling it Russian disinformation. 

The FBI has announced that Hunter Biden’s laptop is real in a criminal trial. Hunter Biden is suing parties for invasion of privacy over the publication of the laptop, and most importantly, the laptop has been admitted as evidence in the  Delaware gun charges case against Hunter Biden this past week based upon an FBI expert. Yet,  Clapper is refusing to retract his 2020 statement. 

The 2020 statement was that with all of those who signed – with their joint experiences – that Hunter Biden’s laptop was the product of Russian disinformation. That is not true.  Since 2020, the laptop from hell has been recognized as Hunter Biden’s. 

On Saturday, Clapper was asked if he would retract the letter he signed on Fox News. Clapper’s one word answer was “No.”

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Hunter Biden’s Laptop NOT Tampered With, Says FBI Witness

Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop was not tampered with in any way, an FBI witness told the jury in Hunter’s gun trial on Wednesday.

When asked if she’d seen any evidence of tampering of data from Hunter’s laptop, FBI agent Erika Jensen, a witness for Special Counsel David Weiss’ team, replied, “No.”

Hunter’s attorney Abbe Lowell then asked Jensen during cross examination, “Did you find out if any of the files had been tampered with?”

“I did not,” Jensen replied.

The testimony debunks repeated claims by Hunter’s associates and lawyers that his laptop was subject to “manipulation” and “hacking.”

Hunter’s lawyers last month had claimed they would dispute the authenticity of the laptop if the DOJ moved to submit it into evidence.

“Defense counsel has numerous reasons to believe the data had been altered and compromised before investigators obtained the electronic material,” his lawyers wrote.

But Weiss shot down Hunter’s defense team’s argument before submitting the laptop into evidence, confirming that it was indeed authentic.

“He has not shown any of the actual evidence in this case is unreliable or inauthentic, because there is none,” Weiss’ team wrote. “Instead, the defendant’s theory about the laptop is a conspiracy theory with no supporting evidence.”

The DOJ confirmed the authenticity of Hunter’s laptop in a January court filing, and that Apple produced backups of data from several of Hunter’s electronic devices that he had backed up to his iCloud account.

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CIA prevented investigators from interviewing Hunter Biden lawyer, new IRS whistleblower docs say

Anew cache of documents from the IRS whistleblowers released Wednesday by the House Ways and Means Committee show how the Central Intelligence Agency directly intervened to prevent the IRS investigators from interviewing Hunter Biden lawyer and benefactor Kevin Morris.

The CIA’s involvement in the case was first suggested in earlier this year when the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees wrote a letter to Director William Burns that revealed impeachment investigators had at least one whistleblower who alleged the spy agency tried to interfere with a witness interview in the case, Just the News previously reported.

“According to the whistleblower, in August 2021, when IRS investigators were preparing to interview Patrick Kevin Morris, an associate of Hunter Biden, the CIA intervened to stop the interview,” Chairmen Jim Jordan and James Comer wrote. “Two DOJ officials were allegedly summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia for a briefing regarding Mr. Morris. At that meeting, it was communicated that Mr. Morris could not be a witness during the investigation.”

The new documents show IRS whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler provided documents to the committee detailing the CIA’s intervention.

According to Shapley’s affidavit of the incident, Assistant U.S. Attorney Lesley Wolf from the Delaware prosecutor’s office in charge of the case and the Department of Justice Tax Division Attorney Jack Morgan were summoned to CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia, for a briefing.

At the meeting, the officials were given a classified briefing and were told by the CIA that the IRS “could no longer pursue” Kevin Morris as a witness in their case. Wolf did not share CIA’s reasoning with the IRS whistleblowers, who then requested their own briefing from the intelligence agency through Wolf.

According to Shapley’s account, Wolf ultimately failed to secure a briefing for the case investigators.

“Although AUSA Wolf initially appeared to be receptive to facilitating a briefing for me on the information, she ignored multiple attempts by me to arrange the briefing. Since obtaining this briefing was outside of my control, eventually I was forced to accept it would not happen,” Shapley wrote in his affidavit. “However, it served as yet another example of deviations from normal investigative processes in this matter.”

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New court document raises serious questions about Secret Service involvement in Hunter Biden gun case: ‘All scared to death’

An otherwise innocuous court filing is raising new questions this week over the Secret Service’s denials that agents inserted themselves into the Hunter Biden gun case.

Days before the 2020 election, Blaze News reported that Secret Service agents visited the Delaware gun shop — StarQuest Shooters & Survival Supply — where Hunter Biden purchased a .38 caliber handgun in October 2018. During that transaction, Hunter allegedly lied on an ATF 4473 form about being a drug user.

Five months later, Politico confirmed Blaze News’ report.

Citing sources with “firsthand knowledge of the episode,” Politico reported that Secret Service agents approached the gun store owner, Ron Palimere, about two weeks after Hunter’s firearm transaction, requesting the paperwork involved in the sale.

At the time, the Secret Service denied any involvement in the incident.

More than three years later, special counsel David Weiss — who is preparing to prosecute the first son for allegedly lying on that ATF form — filed new evidentiary documents ahead of Hunter’s trial next month.

Included in the paperwork is an interview between Palimere, FBI agents, and federal prosecutors that took place on May 16.

During the interview, Palimere told investigators that he recognized Hunter Biden as a “celebrity-type customer” when he entered StarQuest on Oct. 12, 2018. Because he knew that Hunter’s father, then former Vice President Joe Biden, was not a gun supporter, Palimere said he wanted to complete the sale as quickly as possible, believing that having a Biden in the store would be bad for his business.

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Dirty Special Counsel Dave Weiss Retaliates Against Hunter Biden IRS Whistleblowers Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, Falsely Suggests They Were Under Investigation by Govt Agency

Two months ago, Special Counsel Dave Weiss retaliated against Hunter Biden IRS whistleblowers Supervisory Special Agent Gary Shapley and Special Agent Joseph Ziegler by falsely suggesting they were under investigation by a government agency.

Weiss began retaliating against the whistleblowers in 2022, however, the special counsel filed a court document two months ago and falsely claimed Shapley and Ziegler were under investigation for potential misconduct.

Dave Weiss redacted information related to his claims against the whistleblowers under the guise of an “ongoing investigation.”

“Both SSA Shapley and SA Ziegler have filed whistleblower retaliation claims with OSC, and we understand OSC has requested related documents as part of an investigation into the retaliation claims. Specifically, SSA Shapley has alleged that now-Special Counsel David Weiss began retaliating against Shapley in November 2022 when Weiss learned Shapley had been making protected whistleblower disclosures about Weiss’s office to his IRS chain of command. Those disclosures included allegations Weiss’s office (the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Delaware) engaged in prosecutorial misconduct in the Hunter Biden case by treating Mr. Biden more leniently than similarly situated taxpayers who were not politically connected.” Attorneys for the IRS whistleblowers wrote in a letter to the Acting Principal Deputy Special Counsel.

“Two months ago Special Counsel Weiss filed a document in one of the criminal prosecutions of Hunter Biden drafted and redacted carefully to lead the public to believe SSA Shapley and SA Ziegler were under investigation for potential misconduct. That March 11, 2024 filing opened by stating: “[T]wo IRS agents, Gary Shapley and Joseph Ziegler, . . . . have made unsubstantiated claims that prosecutors’ decision-making in this investigation was infected by politics.” The filing continued later: “[A]s described in the attached declaration, Exhibit 2 (filed under seal), the IRS has taken responsible steps to address Shapley’s and Ziegler’s conduct.” Over half of the next page was also redacted. The referenced Exhibit 2 stated the redactions were “to a potential ongoing investigation. . . and the government has filed three exhibits [under seal] that reference a potential ongoing investigation,” the letter stated.

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