On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “The Story,” former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe stated that former acting CIA Director Michael Morell, the Biden campaign, and current Secretary of State Antony Blinken knew that their claims that the Hunter Biden laptop story was Russian disinformation were false because then-DNI Ratcliffe had publicly said that there was no intelligence that the laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign and that the laptop wasn’t part of a disinformation campaign.
Ratcliffe stated, “I had already addressed this story publicly. Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) had come out a few days before and had said that the Biden laptop was part of a smear campaign from the Kremlin. So, I went on national TV to say, that’s not true, the only intelligence Adam Schiff has is the intelligence that I’ve shared with him and the intelligence community doesn’t have any that indicates this is a Russian disinformation campaign. What I didn’t say then, Martha — because I didn’t want to prejudice Hunter Biden’s rights as a citizen — was I knew that the FBI had the laptop and I knew that there was an investigation at the Department of Justice.”
He continued, “So, the problem for Mike Morell and the admission that he just made is that I made those statements on this network publicly and put out a statement 14 hours before the letter that he orchestrated was published in POLITICO. So, at the time that it was published, he knew, Antony Blinken knew, POLITICO knew, the Biden [campaign], they all knew that the intelligence community had officially stated that this was not Russian disinformation. But they did it anyway. They obviously did it as an effort, not just to win the election, but to mislead voters about the truth. They suppressed the truth and they amplified a lie.”
During an interview with the Fox Business Network’s “Mornings with Maria” on October 19, 2020 that took place hours before the letter was published by POLITICO, Ratcliffe stated, “Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” and “Adam Schiff…said that the intelligence community believes that Hunter Biden’s laptop and the emails on it are part of some Russian disinformation campaign. Let me be clear: The intelligence community doesn’t believe that, because there’s no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Chairman Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It’s simply not true.”
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