These officials had asserted in late 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop that made headlines just before the last presidential election was Russian disinformation. AFL claims that a “coordinated communication” and an unreported in-kind contribution to the presidential campaign of now-President Joe Biden and related entities potentially violated federal law.
The “Letter of 51” was published on Oct. 19, 2020, weeks prior to the Nov. 8 presidential election between Vice President Biden and President Donald Trump.
Former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta were among the Obama administration officials who signed the document. Former Director of National Intelligence under George W. Bush and outspoken Trump critic Michael Hayden also signed.
The Complaint
According to AFL’s press release on the complaint, in his testimony before the United States House Judiciary Committee, Michael Morell, a former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, stated that Mr. Blinken, who was at the time an adviser for the Biden campaign, phoned him on or around Oct. 17, 2020, in order to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop narrative. President Biden later named Mr. Blinken Secretary of State.According to Mr. Morell’s testimony, Mr. Blinken “triggered” a disinformation operation in order to “help Vice President Biden ... win the election.”
Mr. Morrell and the others alleged that “[f]or the Russians at this point, with Trump down in the polls, there is [an] incentive for Moscow to pull out the stops to do anything possible to help Trump win and/or to weaken Biden should he win. A ‘laptop op’ fits the bill, as the publication of the emails [is] clearly designed to discredit Biden.”
However, at least some of these officials had close and continuing relationships with the FBI and were aware that Hunter’s laptop had been examined, and its contents validated as authentic, as early as November 2019.
A statement from the House Judiciary Committee in April that summarized the Morrell testimony was referenced in the complaint.
The letter from intelligence officials provided social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter with cover and credibility in order to restrict access to and distribution of the Hunter Biden laptop story, which the New York Post first broke.
Both the Washington Post and The New York Times ultimately confirmed the authenticity of the laptop belonging to Hunter Biden. But during the pre-election debate with President Trump, Vice President Biden was able to label the laptop rumor as “Russian disinformation.”
“There are reasons to believe that the public statement by 51 former intelligence officials was a coordinated political operation to help elect Vice President Biden in the 2020 presidential election, as set forth below,” the complaint to the FEC says.
Impact of the Letter of 51
According to the complaint, President Biden’s campaign benefited from the public statement made by 51 former intelligence officers designed to cast doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop narrative.The complaint recounts communication between then-Biden campaign adviser Mr. Blinken and Mr. Morell over the Hunter Biden laptop story.
“There is reason to believe that the respondents failed to report the above contribution and to identify the individuals who made it,” the complaint says.
The group further stated in their filing that the disinformation effort constitutes a “coordinated communication” that must be reported in accordance with FEC regulations.
According to the AFL’s lawsuit, the Biden campaign collaborated on the statement and used the national security credentials of the ex-intelligence officers to minimize the significance of the Hunter Biden laptop revelations.
The complaint also cites a survey that suggested 80 percent of Americans who paid attention to the Hunter Biden laptop issue believed that more accurate reporting would have affected the election’s outcome. The survey was conducted in August of 2022 and published by the Technometric Institute of Policy and Politics.
AFL requested an immediate investigation and enforcement action against the Democratic National Committee, Biden for President, the Biden Victory Fund, the campaign, and others, alleging that failure to disclose their involvement in orchestrating the notoriously fabricated “Letter of 51,” which former intelligence officials used to obscure evidence of influence peddling and political corruption within the Biden family.
The Department of State did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’s request for comment.
