Exclusive: Republicans Question Former Spy About CIA’s Potential Role in Casting ‘Laptop from Hell’ as Russian Disinfo

Hunter Biden attends the House Oversight and Accountability Committee markup titled "
Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
Wendell Husebø

Top Republicans demanded former Central Intelligence Agency Chief Operating Officer Andrew Makridis provide information about the spy agency’s potential role in casting Hunter Biden’s “Laptop from Hell” as Russian disinformation via a Politico report that cited 51 former intelligence community officials, according to a letter exclusively obtained by Breitbart News.

Makridis retired from the CIA at the end of 2022. He served four years as COO, the number three position at the CIA. He is now a senior adviser at Beacon Global Strategies, a firm that advises on national security issues.

The establishment media used the now-discredited Politico story to push a false and misleading narrative about the origins of Hunter’s laptop. President Joe Biden also cited the article in a 2020 debate as a defense against former President Donald Trump’s probing questions about the Biden business.

Seventy-one percent of Americans believe accurate reporting of Hunter’s “Laptop from Hell” could have altered the 2020 presidential election, according to polling.

It took the establishment media more than a year to admit the story was false. In January, Biden’s Justice Department finally confirmed in court filings that the laptop was real.

RELATED — Breitbart News’s Emma-Jo Morris Testifies at House Hearing on Censorship of LAPTOP FROM HELL Reporting

House Committee on the Judiciary / YouTube

In February, House Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence Chair Michael Turner (R-OH) obtained documents and communications “relating to the CIA’s potential knowledge of and involvement in the October 2020 public statement prior to its publication.”

In turn, the Republicans specifically requested Makridis provide “insight” about the agency’s potential involvement in the hoax:

We have requested documents and communications relating to the CIA’s potential knowledge of and involvement in the October 2020 public statement prior to its publication.

On February 7, 2024, the CIA made a limited production to the Committees containing unclassified emails. The documents show that the CIA’s Prepublication Review Board, upon receiving the draft public statement, raised the statement to the Office of the Chief Operating Officer (COO) for consideration. It is our understanding that it is rare for the COO, the third highest ranking official within the CIA, to review such publications.

According to public information, you served as the CIA’s COO from 2018 to 2022.  As such, we believe that you possess critical insight into the CIA’s potential involvement in and approval of the October 2020 statement. Your testimony is necessary to further our oversight. Accordingly, we request that you appear promptly for a transcribed interview with the Committees.

FILE_1447 by Breitbart News on Scribd

Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.

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