In the weeks before the 2020 election, 51 former intel officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to publish a statement to discredit @NYPost reporting about Hunter Biden’s laptop and the Biden family’s influence peddling.
🧵 Thread:
The statement was a blatant political operation from the start.
It originated with a 2020 Biden campaign official, now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In May 2023, the Committees revealed that w/o Blinken reaching out, the Hunter Biden statement would not have been written.
In an explosive new report, the Committees have uncovered the extent to which the intelligence community was involved in the Hunter Biden statement.
CC: @Weaponization @HouseIntel
Key Finding #1
High-ranking CIA officials, up to and including then-CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the Hunter Biden statement prior its approval and publication.
Because fmr. senior intelligence officials signed the statement, the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board [PCRB] sent the draft statement to then-CIA COO Andrew Makridis.
He said he subsequently informed then-Director Gina Haspel or then-Deputy Director Bishop.
Key Finding #2
Some of the 51, including Morell, were on CIA contract at the time of the statement’s publication—and CIA staff knew that.
They were likely earning a taxpayer-supported income, while politicizing intelligence to boost the Biden campaign.
That’s despite the fact that Morell himself believed it was “inappropriate for a currently serving staff officer or contractor to be involved in the political process.”
Key Finding #3
After publication of the Hunter Biden statement, CIA employees internally expressed frustration about the politicized statement’s content, acknowledging it was not “helpful to the Agency in the long run.”
CIA officials knew the statement was political—yet no one stopped it.
Morell, the chief architect, explicitly told other statement signers: “we think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate and we want to give the VP a talking point to use … ”
Former CIA COO Andrew Makridis expressed his own frustrations with the Hunter Biden statement in a transcribed interview before the Committees.
"We knew that the rushed statement from the 51 former intelligence officials was a political maneuver between the Biden campaign and the intelligence community. Now with this interim report, we reveal how officials at the highest levels of the CIA were aware of the statement and CIA employees knew that several of the so-called former officials were on active contract with the CIA. The report underscores the risks posed by a weaponized federal government." -@Jim_Jordan
"The House Intelligence Committee's work provided us with solid direct evidence that in the final weeks before the 2020 presidential election, 51 former intelligence officials coordinated with the Biden campaign to falsely cast doubt on an explosive New York Post story and label Hunter Biden's abandoned laptop as 'Russian disinformation.' The Committee worked to obtain classified documents from the CIA, including emails, and fought to include evidence of these materials in our report." -@RepMikeTurner
Let’s start with an easy example. @BrandyZadrozny says “no legislation has been passed.”
FACT: @HouseGOP passed The Protecting Speech from Government Interference Act last year, and @JudiciaryGOP passed the Censorship Accountability Act last month.
Chairman Jordan and 44 other Members of Congress submitted a brief to the Supreme Court with @America1stLegal in Murthy v. Missouri, one of the most important free speech cases in years.
This brief shares Congress's findings, including evidence uncovered by @JudiciaryGOP and @Weaponizaion that the Biden Administration worked with Big Tech to censor Americans.
"The First Amendment is first for a reason. Through our constitutional oversight, we have uncovered evidence that the Biden Administration directed and coerced Big Tech companies to censor content online and even books. With the Supreme Court set to hear one of the most important free speech cases in years, 45 Senators and Representatives filed this brief to share Congress's findings and urge the Court to uphold the free speech rights of American citizens," said @Jim_Jordan.
"The Biden Administration has been relentless in its attack on conservative thought and our First Amendment rights. Now, more than ever, it's so important that we stand up and fight back against the Left's endless pursuit to silence and censor hardworking Americans! That is why I am proud to support this amicus brief. Too much is at stake in our country; we must do everything we can to uphold the First Amendment as our founding fathers intended," said @RogerMarshallMD.
🚨 DOJ and FBI try – and fail – to stonewall the Committee.
No amount of lies and excuses will stop the Committee from deposing FBI Agent Elvis Chan.
The American people deserve to hear the full truth about the Biden censorship regime. And they will.
🧵 THREAD:
For a refresher, Facebook Files Part 4 described Elvis Chan’s role in the censorship regime and how the Committee uncovered evidence that he lied during his federal deposition.
In Nov. 2022, back when Republicans won the House, the Committee notified the FBI we wanted to interview Elvis Chan.
On January 17—after the start of the 118th Congress—we sent another letter to @FBI instructing them to make Chan and other FBI agents available for an interview.
FBI Agent Elvis Chan—a key player in the federal government’s censorship regime—was supposed to appear this morning for a transcribed interview before @JudiciaryGOP and @Weaponization but refused to do so at the last minute.
Chan is the main link between the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and Big Tech.
Internal Facebook docs subpoenaed by @JudiciaryGOP and @Weaponization show Chan LIED under oath during his deposition in the ongoing lawsuit against the Biden Admin for censoring Americans.
You can read the full thread on the findings by @JudiciaryGOP and @Weaponization here: