Dozens of former intelligence officials, including ex-CIA Directors John Brennan, Leon Panetta, and Gen. Michael Hayden, signed a letter saying that the Hunter Biden emails revealed last week seem to be a product of a Russian disinformation campaign.
Politico obtained a copy of the letter signed by more than 50 former government officials, in which they said the contents of a hard drive purportedly belonging to the son of Joe Biden appear to have come from Russia.
"We are all individuals who devoted significant portions of our lives to national security. Some of us served in senior positions in policy departments and agencies, and some of us served in senior positions in the Intelligence Community," reads the letter dated Monday. "Some of us were political appointees, and some were career officials. Many of us worked for presidents of both political parties."
The letter continued, "We are all also individuals who see Russia as one of our nation’s primary adversaries. All of us have an understanding of the wide range of Russian overt and covert activities that undermine U.S. national security, with some of us knowing Russian behavior intimately, as we worked to defend our nation against it for a career. A few of us worked against Russian information operations in the United States in the last several years.
"It is for all these reasons that we write to say that the arrival on the U.S. political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden's son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Rudy Giuliani, a former mayor of New York City who now works as President Donald Trump's lawyer, obtained the hard drive and passed it to the New York Post, which has been publishing the contents of the drive — emails between Hunter Biden and officials in China and Ukraine, photos, and videos — since last week. Mediaite reported Monday that Fox News passed on the story over concerns about the hard drive's sourcing.
Several former Trump administration officials signed the aforementioned letter, including former National Counterterrorism Center Deputy Director Russ Travers, former National Security Agency general counsel Glenn Gerstell, and former Deputy NSA Director Rick Ledgett.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said Monday that there is "no evidence" to suggest Russia is behind the Hunter Biden hard drive.
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