Analysis | March 30, 2022 | Paul Crespo
ANALYSIS – In December 2020 I wrote about how 50 former U.S. intelligence officers became part of a Democrat election disinformation campaign to hurt Donald Trump and aid Joe Biden by claiming Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a nefarious Russian spy plot.
I noted this was coordinated election interference by high-ranking former intelligence officials.
And their effort succeeded – proving, as I said – that: ‘Democrat disinformation is far more dangerous than Russian.”
But few followed this lead for over a year. Until now.
The list of intelligence luminaries (aka partisan hacks) used by the Democrats to discredit the Hunter Biden story included five former CIA Directors, and former Director of National intelligence (DNI) James Clapper.
They all signed a letter asserting, with ZERO evidence, that Hunter’s laptop, “has all the hallmarks of a Russian intelligence operation.” They did this, despite their own disclaimer noting that they didn’t know if the Hunter Biden emails from his laptop were genuine or not, and that they had no evidence of Russian involvement.
And of course, there was no evidence, because it was not.
Yet even now, 18 months later, after the New York Times admitted that the Hunter Biden laptop is real, and ‘authenticated’ the emails, none of these partisan hacks has paid any price for their malfeasance.
Many refuse to comment, though a few of the more shameless ones have doubled down in the face of all evidence to stand by their deception.
DNI James Clapper told the New York Post that he stands by the statement “made AT THE TIME,” adding, “I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate.”
That same New York Post piece last week provides a full list of the 51 former spooks who signed the letter, and their responses (or lack thereof) to requests for comment on their deceptive letter in the face of recent corroboration of the laptop story by the New York Times and others.
And let’s be clear – by signing this fake letter calling the bombshell New York Post story about Hunter’s laptop, ‘Russian disinformation,’ they almost single-handedly derailed its potentially devastating effect on Joe Biden at the polls.
The Oct. 14, 2020, Post story about the laptop and emails came as some voters were still deciding whether to vote for Biden or Trump.
And the letter, which was sent out just five days later, on Oct. 19, 2020, served as the core of a Politico story calling the Post’s laptop story “Russian disinformation. That one Politico story then changed the entire media narrative, being quoted ad nauseum by the establishment media and partisan Democrats alike.
After the Politico story, Democrat Adam Schiff – chairman of the House Intelligence Committee shamelessly went on to claim on CNN about the laptop story, “We know that this whole smear on Joe Biden comes from the Kremlin.”
As the Post explains:
…pure speculation by a group of biased officials became gospel among the media. This was “fake news,” and could be safely ignored.
Keep in mind that Twitter already had banned The New York Post a few days before. The rationale was that this was “hacked materials,” even though it wasn’t — and Twitter had no evidence to think it was. A Facebook official, meanwhile, said it wasn’t going to allow the sharing of The Post’s story until it was “fact checked” by a third party — a check that never happened.
Thus, Big Tech, former government officials, and the media conspired together to bury a story.
No, not just bury — create a false narrative that flipped the script to make Joe Biden the victim of a conspiracy.
In short, they peddled online disinformation to sway an election.
And yet. No consequences.
And to make matters worse, John Sipher, who served for decades as a senior operations officer at the CIA and was one of those who signed the letter, now admits that the fake letter he signed helped bring down Trump.
In a recent Twitter feud with former Trump DNI John Grenell, he said, according to The Epoch Times:
“I take special pride in personally swinging the election away from Trump. I lost the election for Trump? Well then I [feel] pretty good about my influence.
Though Sipher claims this post was sarcasm, it sounds like an admission of guilt to me. Sipher also wrote that “the letter didn’t say the laptop was disinformation,” but, in May 2021, reports Epoch Times, he posted a link to the Politico story that did say that.
Again – this was coordinated domestic disinformation and election interference by Democrats and former U.S. intelligence officers to sway an election. There must be consequences. ADN
Paul Crespo is the Managing Editor of American Defense News. A defense and national security expert, he served as a Marine Corps officer and as a military attaché with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) at US embassies worldwide. Paul holds degrees from Georgetown, London, and Cambridge Universities. He is also CEO of SPECTRE Global Risk, a security advisory firm, and President of the Center for American Defense Studies, a national security think tank. – PAULCRESPO.COM – paulcrespo.substack.com