South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham sent a letter to each of the 51 former intelligence officials who signed a memo suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop had the hallmarks of Russian disinformation.
‘In your letter, you claimed that the laptop story was ‘Russia trying to influence how Americans vote,’’ Graham’s letter read to former CIA directors Leon Panetta and Michael Hayden, former Director of National Intelligence [DNI] James Clapper and 48 others.
‘I ask you to respond publicly to one simple question: if you knew then what you know now about the laptop, would you still have signed the October 19, 2020 letter?’
Graham, a Republican, has previously suggested yanking the security clearances of officials who signed the letter.
Vice President-elect JD Vance pledged during the campaign that the incoming Trump administration would strip the clearances of all 51 signatories.
Over the summer, Fox News Digital asked all 51 officials whether they regretted signing on to the now-debunked letter.
‘No,’ Obama-era DNI James Clapper responded.
Mark Zaid, an attorney representing seven of the signatories, said it was ‘patriotic’ for his clients to sign on to the letter.
‘There continues to be by many a calculated or woefully ignorant interpretation of the October 2020 letter signed by fifty-one former intelligence officials concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop,’ Zaid said.
Greg Treverton, a signatory who previously served as chair of the National Intelligence Council, defended the letter in a statement to Fox News Digital.
‘This is very old news,’ Treverton said. ‘What we said was true, we were inferring from our experience, and it did look like a Russian operation. We didn’t, and couldn’t, of course, say it was a Russian operation. Enough said.’
The now-infamous letter had said their national security experience had made them ‘deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.’
‘If we are right,’ they added, ‘this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.’
Despite claims from former officials that the laptop had the hallmarks of Russian disinformation, Fox News Digital reported that federal investigators with the Department of Justice knew in December 2019 that Hunter Biden’s laptop was ‘not manipulated in any way’ and contained ‘reliable evidence,’ but were ‘obstructed’ from seeing all available information, according to an IRS whistleblower involved in the probe – nearly a year before the former intelligence officials and President Joe Biden declared it was part of a Russian disinformation campaign.
The laptop was introduced into evidence in a Delaware courtroom last week by prosecutor Derek Hines and handed to FBI agent Erika Jensen, who had earlier explained how the FBI authenticated the laptop and extracted data. In the gun trial, she testified about dozens of text messages, metadata, photos and short videos found on phones and iCloud accounts belonging to Hunter Biden.