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A report published on Friday claims that the Biden White House has not reacted well to testimony and evidence gathered by a pair of committees in the Republican-controlled House as members continue to investigate allegations of influence-peddling surrounding the first family.
According to the two House committees, evidence has been uncovered indicating that both the 2020 Biden campaign and now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken were involved in attempts to diminish the significance of the contents found on Hunter Biden’s laptop computer, which was being labeled as Russian disinformation in the days leading up to the election, the Western Journal reported.
At the time, Blinken was advising Biden’s campaign.
The release of emails from and to Hunter Biden ahead of the election “cast doubt on President Biden’s previous denials of speaking to his son about his international business dealings,” the House Judiciary Committee said in a Thursday news release.
On October 19, 2020, a group of 51 current and former intelligence officials signed an open letter cautioning that the leaked emails of Hunter Biden, which appeared to indicate corruption within the Biden family, were likely a Russian disinformation campaign.
“If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this,” they wrote, though since then, the contents of the laptop — first reported by the New York Post –have been verified as authentic.
“The White House is in full panic mode over tonight’s Blinken story,” said a post from the House Judiciary GOP Twitter account said Thursday. “They got caught.”
The White House is in full panic mode over tonight’s Blinken story.
They got caught. https://t.co/cytb8i2U7G
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 21, 2023
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, both of Ohio, wrote a letter to Blinken requesting a response to the recent revelation, citing testimony from Michael Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA, who said that a phone call from Blinken convinced Morell to prepare the open letter.
“In his transcribed interview, Morell testified that on or around October 17, 2020, you reached out to him to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story,” Jordan and Turner wrote to Blinken.
“That same day, October 17, you also emailed Morell an article published in USA Today alleging that the FBI was examining whether the Hunter Biden laptop was part of a ‘disinformation campaign,’” the GOP leaders said.
“The very bottom of the email you sent to Morell included the signature block of Andrew Bates, then-director of rapid response for the Biden campaign,” they wrote.
#BREAKING: Testimony Reveals Secretary Blinken and the Biden Campaign Were Behind the Infamous Public Statement from Former Intel Officials on the Hunter Biden Laptop @Jim_Jordan and @RepMikeTurner reveal HUGE news here: pic.twitter.com/bX3fpqJKPo
— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) April 21, 2023
Jordan and Turner’s letter stated that Morell had informed lawmakers that individuals from the Biden campaign were heavily involved in releasing the open letter. The letter further highlighted that Morell had expressed that the open letter concerning Hunter Biden’s laptop was partially designed to assist Joe Biden in the election.
“Based on Morell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story and preventing American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election,” the Republicans wrote.
“This concerted effort to minimize and suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about the Biden family was a grave disservice to all American citizens’ informed participation in our democracy,” they added, going on to request that Blinken provide any information he has regarding the open letter from the intel officials.
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) April 21, 2023
In an interview with Fox News, Jordan said the response to Hunter Biden’s emails was purely political, not an attempt to get to the truth.
“When the story came out on Oct. 14, 2020, about the Biden business operation and was then-Vice President Joe Biden involved, there was some concern that he was — and then quickly it turns into this political operation — that letter that became the basis for suppressing the story and keeping it from the American people just days before the most important election we have,” he said.
“It was a total political operation,” Jordan added.
