Federal Government Election Interference Operations
The federal government’s efforts to suppress conservative voices extended to the 2020 presidential election. On October 14, 2020, just days before the 2020 presidential election between President Trump and President Biden, the New York Post published a story detailing how Hunter Biden used the position and influence of his father for personal gain with his father’s awareness.188 Almost immediately after the publication of this potentially election-altering story, social media companies and news outlets censored the story, preventing Americans from learning important information as they were heading to the polls. Even after social media companies stopped censoring the stories, 51 former intelligence community officials, using their official titles and citing their national security credentials, released a public statement suggesting that the story “ha[d] all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”189 The Select Subcommittee investigated the censorship decisions and the origins of the public statement by former intelligence officials, revealing how the federal government, social media companies, and the Biden campaign acted in concert to discredit and diminish any negative stories about President Biden and his family.
On May 10, 2023, the Select Subcommittee worked with the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to release its a report on its investigation into the coordinated public statement from former high ranking intelligence officials, titled “The Hunter Biden Statement: How Senior Intelligence Community Officials and the Biden Campaign Worked to Mislead American Voters.” As part of its investigation, the Select Subcommittee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence wrote to all 51 former officials who signed the statement, requesting documents and testimony.190 The investigation revealed that this public statement was politically motivated from the start, designed to, as former CIA Director Michael Morell testified, “help Vice President Biden” in his campaign for president.191 As the emails soliciting signatures made clear, “We think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate”192 and “we want to give the [Vice President] a talking point to use in response.”193 The interim report further detailed how Morell spearheaded the statement after receiving a call from then-campaign advisor and current Secretary of State Antony Blinken.194 Importantly, the Biden campaign’s fingerprints were all over the public statement, including coordinating its dissemination to the media.195 After the statement was published, Biden campaign chairman Steve Ricchetti called Morell and “thanked [him] for putting the statement out.”196
Following continued investigation, the Select Subcommittee and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence released a second report on June 25, 2024, “The Intelligence Community 51: How CIA Contractors Colluded with the Biden Campaign to Mislead American Voters.” This report detailed previously nonpublic information about the extent to which the CIA was aware of the statement before publication. Indeed, high-ranking CIA officials, up to and including CIA Director Gina Haspel, were made aware of the statement prior to its approval and publication.197 Internal CIA documents also showed that employees internally expressed concern about the statement’s politicized content, acknowledging it was not “helpful to the Agency in the long run.”198
Alarmingly, the Select Subcommittee learned that some of the statement’s signatories were on active contract with the CIA at the time of the statement’s publication.199 Although the signatories contended throughout the course of the Select Subcommittee’s investigation that none had access to classified information when asserting that the allegations surrounding Hunter Biden’s laptop were likely Russian disinformation, those on active contract with the CIA were likely earning taxpayer dollars while politicizing intelligence to assist the Biden campaign.
Through the Select Subcommittee’s investigations, it is clear that the intelligence community worked to diminish the reach of stories that could be seen as harmful to President Biden’s 2020 presidential campaign. The American people deserve to have trust that the intelligence community is not working against them or preventing voters from having access to all available information before making an informed decision about the candidate for whom they wished to cast their ballot. Unfortunately, before the 2020 election, the ends seemed to justify the means when it came to defeating President Trump. Stories that could have changed the outcome of the election were censored, those who shared the stories were suspended from social media, and former high ranking intelligence officials, purportedly without any access to official information, told the American people that the Russians were interfering in the election.
188 Emma-Jo Morris & Gabrielle Fonrouge, Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian businessman to VP dad, N.Y. POST (Oct. 14, 2020); see also Emma-Jo Morris & Gabrielle Fonrouge, Hunter Biden emails show leveraging connections with his father to boost Burisma pay, N.Y. POST (Oct. 14, 2020).
189 Jim Clapper, et al., Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails (Oct. 19, 2020); see also Natasha Bertrand, Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say, POLITICO (Oct. 19, 2020).
190 STAFF OF H. COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY AND SELECT SUBCOMM. ON THE WEAPONIZATION OF THE FED. GOV’T OF THE H. COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY, 118TH CONG., THE HUNTER BIDEN STATEMENT: HOW SENIOR INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY OFFICIALS AND THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN WORKED TO MISLEAD AMERICAN VOTERS (Comm. Print May 10, 2023) (hereinafter “MISLEAD AMERICAN VOTERS”).
191 Transcribed Interview of Mr. Michael Morell at 11 (Apr. 4, 2023) (hereinafter “Morrell Interview”).
192 Email from Kristin Wood to Unnamed Intelligence Officials (Oct. 19, 2020 7:27 AM) (on file with the Committees).
193 Email from Michael Morell to Michael Morell, Marc Polymeropoulos, and Bcc’d Recipients (Oct 18, 2020 4:48 PM) (on file with the Committees).
194 MISLEAD AMERICAN VOTERS, supra note 190, at 6-7 (Comm. Print May 10, 2023).
195 Id. at 36.
196 Morrell Interview, supra note 191, at 96-97 (Apr. 4, 2023).
197 STAFF OF H. COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY, SELECT SUBCOMM. ON THE WEAPONIZATION OF THE FED. GOV’T OF THE H. COMM. ON THE JUDICIARY, AND H. PERMANENT SELECT COMM. ON INTELLIGENCE, 118TH CONG., THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY 51: HOW CIA CONTRACTORS COLLUDED WITH THE BIDEN CAMPAIGN TO MISLEAD AMERICAN VOTERS 5 (Comm. Print June 25, 2024) (hereinafter “CIA CONTRACTORS”).
198 See Email from [Redacted] to [Redacted] (Oct. 20, 2020, 11:05 AM) (Bates CIA000157) (on file with the Committees).
199 CIA CONTRACTORS, supra note 197, at 16-20.