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McCarthy says Hunter Biden probe will expand to intel chiefs: ‘What did they know and when?’

August 7, 2022 | | Print Article

If the U.S. intelligence agencies thought they were off the hook for trying to bury the Hunter Biden laptop story in a “Russian hoax” hole, they were mistaken. House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy said the House probe into the first son’s shady foreign business dealings will be expanding to include intel agency chiefs, who were most certainly keeping tabs on Hunter Biden’s questionable activities abroad.

“They should come in and talk to us,” McCarthy told the New York Post. “You’d want to ask these individuals what did they know and when.”

“People can come in and talk to us and answer the questions,” he added. “If that’s not the case there are times we will use the subpoena as well.”

As BizPac Review reported in October 2020, days after The Post’s first explosive reports on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and his shady foreign business deals —  more than 50 “former senior intelligence officials” signed a public letter that claimed the story had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

“The arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation,” the letter, written just 14 dhttps://twitter.com/BIZPACReview/status/1318587290965266432?s=20&t=EEP1kEb8FmOMDYu4h-52Hgays before the 2020 presidential election, read.

“If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this,” the group wrote.

But the letter contradicted Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, who, hours before the letter was published by Politico, said the U.S. intelligence community has no evidence linking Russia to Hunter Biden’s laptop.

Ratcliffe went on Fox Business Network’s “Mornings With Maria” and told host Maria Bartiromo that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and others pushing the Russian disinformation narrative didn’t have their facts straight.

“Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff or any member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” he said.

After the contents of the laptop’s hard drive were authenticated by the New York Times in March 2021, the White House refused to correct the lie.

“I would point you to the Department of Justice and also to Hunter Biden’s representatives,” said then White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki when asked if President Joe Biden still stood by the assessment that the laptop was planted by Russians. “He doesn’t work in the government.”

Many of the same intel officials who insisted it was all a Russian-crafted hoax doubled down on their initial statement.

“Yes, I stand by the statement made AT THE TIME. … I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate,” said the former director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, who served when Joe Biden was vide president.

McCarthy wants to know if the group of ex-officials would still sign the letter if they had to do it all again.

“You would want to ask these individuals first of all, ‘Would you still sign the letter today, and who asked you to sign the letter and why did you sign the letter, and what information did you have prior?’” McCarthy said. “Why did you feel comfortable — especially with your own reputations — that you would sign that letter? Was it someone from the [Biden] campaign who asked, or was it people in the intel community?

“I think these questions have to be answered,” he stated. “You cannot allow an intel community to utilize their name in an improper way without correcting.”

House Republicans haven’t waited to regain the majority to dig into the truth behind the Hunter Biden laptop story.

On Thursday, GOP members of the House Oversight Committee cornered FBI Director Christopher Wray and demanded to know why his agency sat on the laptop since at least December 2019.

While Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said he has no faith in the FBI’s willingness to investigate Hunter Biden, McCarthy is more generous.

“I am going to give [Wray] the benefit of the doubt at this moment in time,” he said. “We are going to ask the tough questions and if we don’t get the honest answers, there’s consequences.”

Already sent are more than 500 “preservation letters” demanding that documents and data relevant to the matter are saved. Even if President Biden should decide not to run for reelection, McCarthy vowed the investigation will continue.

“We have a responsibility of oversight,” the GOP House leader said.

Melissa Fine
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