Sean Davis:
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) both solicited signatures for and eventually approved the infamous 2020 letter claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop story was a Russian disinformation plot, recent congressional testimony suggests. According to a report to be released Wednesday by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, multiple former U.S. intelligence officials testified under oath about the CIA's involvement in the distribution of the letter, which was eventually signed by more than 50 former senior U.S. intelligence officials.
"One signer of the statement, former CIA analyst David Cariens, disclosed to the Committees that a CIA employee affiliated with the agency's Prepublication Classification Review Board ('PCRB') informed him of the existence of the statement and asked if he would sign it," the House investigative report notes. "The Committees have requested additional material from the CIA, which has ignored the request to date."
Previously it was reported that Morrell must have been lying when he told CIA officials that the psyops letter would be approved by the Prepublication Classification Review Board.
That claim now appears to have been true, based on this new reporting. The CIA Prepublication Classification Review Board falsely approved the draft letter, and in fact personnel from that board actively solicited people to sign their psyop.
The Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) is tasked with reviewing statements, letters, and books published by former intelligence personnel to determine whether the material contains any classified information that would need to be removed or redacted prior to publication.
In a March 5, 2023, email to congressional investigators, Cariens stated that a CIA official tasked with reviewing and approving a memoir he planned to publish told him about the Hunter Biden laptop letter and even asked him if he would like to sign it.
"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," Cariens wrote. "The person asked me if I would be willing to sign."
So Morrell had people on the Review Board telling would-be signatories it had all been approved for publication.
That may not be true -- the board itself may not have approved the letter. Three days seems like a brief period for turnaround on a full review.
But people from the review were telling people to sign the letter -- suggesting that the board had authenticated and cleared the false psyops claims in the letter.
According to the email, the CIA official also read specific language from the letter to Cariens to convince him to sign the letter. In his email, Cariens stated that he did not remember the name of the CIA official who asked him to sign the Hunter Biden laptop letter. Cariens' wife Janice, who retired from the CIA in 1995, also signed the letter.
...
Emails obtained by the House weaponization subcommittee also revealed that former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who repeatedly peddled false allegations that Trump had colluded with Russian President Vladimir Putin to steal the 2016 election from Hillary Clinton, had a heavy hand in the drafting of the Hunter Biden laptop letter.
"I have one editorial suggestion for the letter: I think it would strengthen the verbiage if you say this has all the classic earmarks of a Soviet/Russian information operation rather than the 'feel' of a Russian operation," Clapper wrote to Morell on the evening of Sunday, Oct. 18, 2020.
More at the link.
Also, more from Deb Heine. She provides a lot of background for the story, and also notes that no lesser expert than Mike Morrell himself said that it would be incredibly inappropriate for the CIA itself to solicit signature -- but that's exactly what happened, according to the latest interviews.
The joint staff report states that Cariens' revelation "is potentially shocking."
As he recounted, a CIA employee informed him about the statement, the CIA employee read the text of the statement to him, and the CIA employee asked Cariens if he would like to join. Indeed, even Morell testified that such an action by a CIA employee would be "inappropriate." Morell explained: I did not coordinate with the CIA. I would have--had I known [about Carien's allegation], I would have reacted very negatively to this. This might--you know, had I known at the time this might have been in the letter, then I certainly would have reported this to then the Director of the Agency.
Polymeropoulos also testified that such an action from the CIA would be "incredibly unprofessional."
It is very easy to find this person -- of course the CIA knows exactly who did it, because they know exactly who was corresponding with Carriens about getting his book cleared for publication.
BUT THEY WILL HIDE THIS LIKE THE NUCLEAR CROWN JEWELS.
In addition, Deb Heine confirms that the Review Board rushed out their COMPLETELY FALSE review, stamping the letter as verified, just because Morrell told them it was a "rush job." He had to have the letter out in time for the debate, you see.
On October 19, 2020, according to the House report, "Morell sent the finalized public statement to the CIA's PCRB for approval, telling the board that it was 'a rush job, as it need to get out as soon as possible.'"
He was able to quickly secure the PCR's approval of the misleading public statement. In a text message, Polymeropoulos congratulated Morell, telling him, "U have some juice!"
Juice, plus a hostile foreign intelligence agency which has decided the US is the only country whose elections it can interfere with successfully, so they might as well do what they're good at.
The CIA is a hostile enemy foreign intelligence agency and instead of putting them in jail, we continue paying their salaries.