Turns Out Signing the Hunter Biden Letter Was a Bad Idea
A writer from The Atlantic, Graeme Wood, has admitted that dozens of intelligence officials who signed a letter claiming that the Hunter Biden laptop story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” left the impression that they were on the Democratic team. The officials, including former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Directors John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and Michael Hayden, had released a public letter in 2020 shortly before the election, claiming that even though the laptop did not have “any evidence of Russian involvement,” it looked like a Russian information operation nonetheless.
Wood argued that the letter exhibited extremely shoddy analytic craftsmanship and that the conduct of these intelligence officials ultimately discredited them before the American people. He noted that the letter signers left the impression that they were on the Democratic team and that they would lower their standards in order to influence an American election.
The letter came after the New York Post reported on emails showing Hunter Biden coordinated for Joe Biden to meet with a top executive at Ukrainian energy company Burisma months before pressuring Ukrainian officials to oust a prosecutor investigating the company.
President Donald Trump pulled the security clearances of 51 national security officials who signed the letter, including the 13 who publicly endorsed Biden in 2020. Wood argued that while yanking the clearances was “petty and personal” amid a flurry of executive orders, it was one of the easier to defend.
The Atlantic writer also noted that the motivations of the intelligence officials were “deeply mysterious” and that they seemed to have risked their hard-won credibility on the possibility that Hunter Biden might not be a slimeball. He argued that even considering their caveats, the officials signed and published their letter without due diligence and without the slightest consideration that Hunter was, in fact, prone to shady behavior.
Wood concluded that the conduct of these intelligence officials ultimately discredited them before the American people and that they left the impression that they were on the Democratic team.
