House Democrats are accusing the GOP of selectively using evidence to claim top government officials intentionally misled the public on the Hunter Biden laptop case to help then-candidate Joe Biden win the 2020 election.
GOP leaders on the House Judiciary Committee sent a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, citing testimony from a former CIA deputy director that Blinken was the acting force behind the push to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation. Democrats pushed back on those allegations, accusing Republicans of using “cherry-picked” excerpts to “sensationalize a three-year-old tabloid story.”
HUNTER BIDEN INVESTIGATION: EX-CIA CHIEF SAYS BLINKEN ‘TRIGGERED’ LETTER TO DISCREDIT LAPTOP
“To be clear, no part of that interview demonstrates that Tony Blinken or any other Biden campaign official asked Mike Morrell to write a letter about Hunter Biden’s laptop,” Democrats on the Judiciary Committee wrote in a statement.
Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner (R-OH) announced on Friday that their panels would be opening investigations into the matter, specifically focusing on a letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials that shrugged off the Hunter Biden allegations as false. The pair accused Biden’s campaign of playing a role in suppressing the story as a way to prevent voters from “making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election.”
However, Democrats blasted those allegations, pointing to excerpts of Morrell’s testimony that they say prove Blinken and other Biden officials had no part in burying the story.
“At no point during his interview did Mr. Morrell testify that Secretary Blinken directed or asked him to write any letters,” they wrote. “Instead, Mr. Morrell testified that Mr. Blinken sought his advice, as many others have.”
The latest developments stem from a letter signed by dozens of ex-national security officials in October 2020 that sought to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as having "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." Morrell was one of the officials who signed on to the letter.
Democrats argued that the letter was not part of a push by the Biden campaign to suppress the story, as it was “written by private citizens expressing their private opinion.” However, Republicans pushed back on that assertion, noting their expertise was used to sway public opinion.
"Although the statement’s signatories have an unquestioned right to free speech and free association — which we do not dispute — their reference to their national security credentials lent weight to the story and suggested access to specialized information unavailable to other Americans," Jordan and Turner wrote.
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Republicans have long sought to investigate Hunter Biden’s laptop and his business dealings, making it one of their top priorities in the new Congress. The issue first took prominence during the 2020 election as the GOP sought to determine whether then-candidate Joe Biden benefited financially from his son’s transactions, pointing to national security concerns.
The president’s son has never publicly denied that the laptop belonged to him but has insisted he is "100% certain" he will be cleared of wrongdoing.