On Friday’s broadcast of the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria,” host Maria Bartiromo reacted to The New York Times admitting that the Hunter Biden laptop is authentic by pointing out that then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe pushed back on assertions that the laptop was Russian misinformation back in October 2020.
Bartiromo played a clip of Ratcliffe on the October 19, 2020 edition of her show. At the time, Ratcliffe said, “This is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”
During the appearance, Ratcliffe also reacted to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Schiff’s (D-CA) assertion that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign by stating, “The intelligence community doesn’t believe that. Because there’s no intelligence that supports that.” And said, “Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign, and I think it’s clear that the American people know that.”
Ratcliffe’s assertions were defended by then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who said he had “every reason to believe [Ratcliffe’s] got it exactly right.” And FBI Assistant Director for Congressional Affairs Jill C. Tyson wrote that the FBI had “nothing to add at this time to the October 19th public statement by the Director of National Intelligence about the available actionable intelligence.”
In the letter signed by former intelligence officials that claimed the emails appeared to be Russian disinformation, the officials wrote, “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to [T]he New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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