The coauthor of the infamous statement from 51 former intelligence officials casting doubt on the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 recruited influential figures in the intelligence community to sign it to give then-candidate Joe Biden a debate “talking point,” according to an email exchange obtained by Breitbart News.
The email exchange from October 19, 2020, between former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell and former CIA Director John Brennan reveals Morell’s behind-the-scenes efforts to solicit signatories who had been deeply entrenched in the intelligence community in part to help the Biden campaign.
It comes after the Washington Examiner first reported on a related email written by Morell and statement coauthor Marc Polymeropoulos on October 18 and addressed to a number of former intelligence officials.
That email, which Breitbart News has also obtained, contained a draft of the statement.
Morell and Polymeropoulos wrote to the ex-officials asking them for their signatures on the statement and saying they created it because:
[W]e believe the Russians were involved in some way in the Hunter Biden email issue and because we think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate and we want to give the VP a talking point to use in response.
See the full email below. Recipients’ names have been blacked out, but Breitbart News confirmed Brennan was one of them:
Then, in the October 19 email exchange, Morell followed up with Brennan and listed a number of potential signatories:
Can I add your name to this list? Will be adding Leon, Sue Gordon, Jeh Johnson, George, Lisa Monaco, and Mike Rogers (DIRNSA) today.
And working on adding Dan Coats, Mike Rogers (HPSCI), and Tom Bossert.
And lots of other IC career folks.
Trying to give the campaign, particularly during the debate on Thursday, a talking point to push back on Trump on this issue.
Brennan responded compliantly within 20 minutes:
Ok, Michael, add my name to the list. Good initiative. Thanks for asking me to sign on.
See a copy of that email exchange below:
Biden did indeed use the now widely debunked statement in his debate against former President Donald Trump on October 22, saying:
Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, [Trump’s] accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said this has all the characteristics — four — five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.
Watch:
Most of those — aside from Brennan and Leon Panetta — whom Morell said he would be adding to the list do not appear among the 51 public signatories on the statement, which was published by Politico just days after the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story broke. The statement does however include nine anonymous signatories.
The Post’s story, written by now-Breitbart News Political Editor Emma-Jo Morris, revealed damning information about the Biden family’s business dealings based on information found on an abandoned laptop of Hunter’s that the Post had obtained.
The statement signed by Morell and the dozens of others, many of whom had once served in the highest ranks of the U.S. government, claimed the story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” but acknowledged they had no evidence to support such a claim.
The revelations that these former top officials were intentionally and explicitly attempting to aid Biden’s campaign comes after Morell revealed in congressional testimony last month that now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken had inspired him to write the statement.
Portions of Morell’s testimony, published in a letter to Blinken by Judiciary Committee chair Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) and Intel Committee chair Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH), also reveal the Biden campaign coordinated with Morell on the dissemination of the statement.
“Based on Morrell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story,” the chairmen wrote, charging that the statement served to prevent “American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election.”
Write to Ashley Oliver at aoliver@breitbart.com. Follow her on Twitter at @asholiver.