Former intelligence officer James Clapper slammed Politico for “deliberately” distorting the infamous letter he signed saying Hunter’s laptop was possible Russian disinformation. The letter signed by 51 intel officials was intended to discredit the New York Post’s report by Emma-Jo Morris that revealed the Biden family engaged in foreign business affairs while Joe Biden was a U.S. official.
The letter was peddled before the 2020 presidential election by Politico under the title by reporter Natasha Bertrand, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” Most establishment media organizations then used the Politico article to discount the revelations from Hunter’s laptop, such as those about corruption that allegedly involve now-President Joe Biden.
“More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining their belief that the recent disclosure of emails allegedly belonging to Joe Biden’s son ‘has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the article read in support of the Biden family.
“We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post … are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement,” the letter linked in Bertrand article said.
Hunter Biden, son of President Joe Biden, boards Air Force One with the president, Saturday, Feb. 4, 2023, at Hancock Field Air National Guard Base in Syracuse, N.Y. Biden is traveling to Camp David in Maryland after visiting with family members following the passing of Michael Hunter, the brother of the president’s first wife, Neilia Hunter Biden. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky)
On Monday, Clapper told the Washington Post that Politico “deliberately distorted” the letter he signed. “There was message distortion,” Clapper said. “All we were doing was raising a yellow flag that this could be Russian disinformation. Politico deliberately distorted what we said. It was clear in paragraph five.”
The letter was organized by Michael Morell, former deputy director of the CIA, and written by a “number of senior intelligence officials,” the Post reported. “Morell had long been considered a top candidate for CIA director in a Biden administration, news reports said, but key Democrats objected, claiming he publicly supported the CIA’s enhanced interrogation methods after the Sept. 11 attacks.”
Thomas Fingar, another signer of the letter and former intelligence official at the State Department, also tried to distance himself from the debunked Politico report by Natasha Bertrand, who is now a CNN reporter.
“No one who has spent time in Washington should be surprised that journalists and politicians willfully or unintentionally misconstrue oral or written statements,” Fingar said. “The statement we signed was carefully written to minimize the likelihood that what was said would be misconstrued, and to provide a clear written record that could be used to identify and disprove distortions.”
Politico stands by its former reporter’s article, telling the Post it “fairly and accurately reported on — and summarized — the intelligence officials’ letter.”
“More specifically, the headline is a fair summary of their allegations, the subhead offers additional context, and the first paragraph of the article hyperlinks to the letter itself, allowing readers to draw their own conclusion,” Politico claimed.
