GOP lawmakers ask Blinken for information on 2020 public letter from ex-intel officials casting doubt on Hunter Biden laptop story

The Republican chairs of the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday asking for information related to the crafting of a public letter signed weeks before the 2020 presidential election by dozens of former intelligence officials, who said they saw signs the Hunter Biden laptop story could be Russian disinformation.

In October 2020, 51 former intelligence officials signed on to a public letter that stated that the appearance of the Hunter Biden laptop story on the political scene had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Though the former officials acknowledged in their public letter that they did “not have evidence of Russian involvement,” Republicans have argued that the letter helped discredit the laptop story just before the election. s

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan and Intelligence Chairman Mike Turner wrote to Blinken, who was out of government and an adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign at the time the intelligence letter was written, that their panels had “recently conducted a transcribed interview with Michael Morell,” a former deputy director for the CIA and one of the former intelligence officials who signed the public letter.