“In 2020, when a chairman of an intelligence committee misrepresented that a laptop owned by then candidate Biden’s son was somehow a Russian intelligence operation, and 51 former intelligence officials used the imprimatur of IC [intelligence community] authority to go along with that, I stood in the breach. I stood alone and told the American people the truth about that,” Ratcliffe said during his confirmation hearing.
“I think my record in terms of speaking truth to power and defending the intelligence community and its good work is very clear and what I can assure you is those types of instances, if I’m in that position as CIA director, and have to do that again, as uncomfortable as that can be to be accused, the truth will ultimately defend itself. The intelligence will as well,” he added.
Ratcliffe, as the director of national intelligence, was one of the prominent intelligence officials to dispute claims that the New York Post story about the Hunter Biden laptop was allegedly Russian disinformation.
He said in October 2020, “Don’t drag the intelligence community into this. Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign, and I think it’s clear that the American people know that.”
In the weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential election, dozens of former senior intelligence officials claimed that the Hunter Biden laptop story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
The House Intelligence Committee in June 2024 later found that CIA contractors colluded with the then-Biden campaign to mislead American voters about the bombshell story.
“We knew that the rushed statement from the 51 former intelligence officials was a political maneuver between the Biden campaign and the intelligence community. Now with this interim report, we reveal how officials at the highest levels of the CIA were aware of the statement and CIA employees knew that several of the so-called former officials were on active contract with the CIA. The report underscores the risks posed by a weaponized federal government,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) said in June.
Sean Moran is a congressional reporter for Breitbart News. Follow him on X @SeanMoran3.
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