Washington, DC: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday revoking the security clearance of 50 former intelligence officials, who issued a letter in 2020, discrediting the reporting that then-US President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business and had called the news story part of a “Russian disinformation campaign.”
Within 90 days of this days, the Director of National Intelligence, in consultation with the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, shall submit a report to US President Trump through the National Security Advisor that details “any additional inappropriate activity that occurred within the Intelligence Community, by anyone contracted by the Intelligence Community or by anyone who held a security clearance, related to the letter signed by the 51 former intelligence officials.”
The order signed by Trump states, “In the closing weeks of the 2020 Presidential campaign, at least 51 former intelligence officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to issue a letter discrediting the reporting that President Joseph R. Biden’s son had abandoned his laptop at a computer repair business. Signatories of the letter falsely suggested that the news story was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.”
The letter’s signatories include – former US Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, Former CIA Director Michael Hayden, former US National Security Advisor, John Bolton, former CIA Director John Brennan. According to the statement, two signatories, Patty Patricia A Brandmaeir and Brett Davis, are deceased.
The order signed by Trump states, “Federal policymakers must be able to rely on analysis conducted by the Intelligence Community and be confident that it is accurate, crafted with professionalism, and free from politically motivated engineering to affect political outcomes in the United States. The signatories wilfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions.”
“This fabrication of the imprimatur of the Intelligence Community to suppress information essential to the American people during a Presidential election is an egregious breach of trust reminiscent of a third world country. And now the faith of Americans in all other patriotic intelligence professionals who are sworn to protect the Nation has been imperilled,” it added.
The order stated that John Bolton published a memoir for monetary gain after his termination from his White House position in 2019. It accused him of publishing him a book “rife with sensitive information drawn from his time in government” and “the memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff.” According to the order, the publication also caused a grave risk that classified material was publicly exposed.
The letter regarding the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop had immediately taken a centre stage in the partisan wrangling over the laptop itself, which had sexually explicit videos of Biden’s son with women and photos of him doing drugs in hotel rooms, many of which have since been shared by media outlets, CNN reported.
When the existence of the laptop and its contents was first reported by New York Post, many mainstream media outlets raised questions on its authenticity and social media companies tried to restrict the ability of users to share the Post’s coverage, after questions were raised whether it could have been part of a foreign influence campaign, according to CNN report.
In 2020, the former officials wrote, “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails… are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.” They added, “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”
Since then, the laptop and its contents have been considered legitimate. It played a part in Hunter Biden’s prosecution on felony drug charges, with special counsel David Weiss terming questions regarding the laptop’s authenticity a “conspiracy theory,” CNN reported.
Republicans have claimed that the letter was a evidence of a deep-state collusion between the Biden campaign and the CIA to cover up other materials on the laptop that they think show improper foreign business dealings by the Biden family. (With inputs from ANI)
