Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.
CIA May Have Solicited Signature for Letter Undermining Hunter Biden Story, Report Finds
Top House investigative committees have evidence that at least one CIA employee allegedly had a role in obtaining signatures for the now-debunked statement that 51 former intelligence officials signed casting doubt on the Hunter Biden story in 2020, according to a joint committee report.
The 65-page “interim report,” compiled by the Judiciary Committee, Intel Committee, and Weaponization of the Federal Government Select Subcommittee, contains a wealth of detail about the orchestration of the statement, according to a copy Breitbart News obtained in advance of its anticipated Wednesday release.
The report focuses largely on the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB), which the agency uses to screen written works, such as books or academic papers, that current and former CIA employees want to publish.
The CIA’s PCRB checks the items ahead of their publication to make sure they do not contain classified information and to protect the employees and former employees from “legal liability,” according to the agency’s website.
The committees’ report found, based off written testimony from one of the statements’ 51 signatories, David Cariens, that the CIA’s PCRB broached the statement to Cariens, a retired CIA analyst, after contacting Cariens about an unrelated matter — a book he was seeking to publish.
Both Cariens and his wife, also a former CIA official, agreed to sign the statement only after the CIA board brought it up to him, he said.
Cariens told Congress, “When the person in charge of reviewing the book called to say it was approved with no changes, I was told about the draft letter. The person asked me if I would be willing to sign.”
Read Cariens’ full written testimony to Congress below:
(obtained by Breitbart News)
The stunning admission, if accurate, indicates a current CIA employee worked on behalf of the former intelligence officials to obtain at least one signature for the infamous and politically-motivated statement, which was published in Politico two weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
Asked about the report finding, Judiciary Committee chairman Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) told Breitbart News in a brief interview Tuesday that it was “totally inappropriate, totally wrong.”
“Based on [Cariens’ testimony], it sure looks like the CIA was soliciting names for this letter that we now know was not accurate, and that we now know was being put together with coordination with the Biden campaign,” Jordan said.
The statement claimed without evidence that the New York Post’s story about then-candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter, published just two weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential election, “had all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
The coauthor of it, former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell, testified before Jordan’s committee last month that he and Marc Polymeropoulos drafted the statement for two specific reasons: to convey their concerns about Russia and to help Joe Biden win the election.
Michael Morell, former CIA acting director, prepares to testify before Congress, January 12, 2016, in Washington, DC. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)
The Post’s story, written by now-Breitbart News Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris, revealed damning information about the Biden family’s business dealings based on information found on an abandoned laptop of Hunter’s that the Post had obtained.
Morell revealed in his testimony that not only did he seek to help the Biden campaign by drafting the statement discrediting the Post’s story, but that the campaign coordinated with him on the statement’s dissemination.
The political drive behind it was further underscored by emails between Morell and some of the former intelligence officials in the leadup to its publication.
Morell clearly stated in the emails, which Breitbart News obtained last week, that he wanted the influential ex-officials to sign the statement to provide Biden with a “talking point” in the October 22 presidential debate against then-President Donald Trump.
Biden did indeed rely on the statement in the debate to dismiss the Post’s story when he was confronted about it:
And that’s what happened. pic.twitter.com/UfagCnmvFl https://t.co/mySzPJtFmS
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) May 5, 2023
The committees’ report also shows Morell reached out to the CIA’s PCRB to seek the requisite approval from the CIA to publish the statement, telling the board, “This is a rush job, as it needs to get out as soon as possible.”
Morell’s request to the board appeared to receive same-day treatment. While the committees found no emails approving Morell’s request, they obtained a text Morell sent to Polymeropoulos saying the board had “cleared” the statement hours after Morell had emailed it to the board.
Morell noted, per the report, that the PCRB is made up of current CIA officers and “not contractors.”
“Given the gravity” of the allegation that the CIA board cooperated so quickly with Morell’s “rush job” and potentially helped him garner at least one signature, the report stated, the committees are demanding more information from the CIA and Cariens on the matter.
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