(PM.) An interim report released by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government on Wednesday has revealed that the Biden campaign coordinated with organizers of the infamous letter calling the Hunter Biden laptop story “Russian disinformation” to get the statement out to the media, specifically to the Washington Post first.
According to the report, testimony provided to the committees revealed that former CIA acting director Mike Morell worked with Nick Shapiro, his former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor at the CIA, to disseminate the letter signed by more than 50 former intelligence officials to the press.
How much coordination was happening between the signers of the Hunter Biden “intel” letter and the Biden Campaign?
So much, that the Biden Campaign signaled which news outlet they’d like to break the story first.
The outlet? @washingtonpost. pic.twitter.com/01KUlK5o5o
— Weaponization Committee (@Weaponization) May 10, 2023
Morell testified that, “in terms of getting [the statement] to the media, that was entirely Nick Shapiro’s responsibility here. So he took that responsibility on.”
Email correspondence obtained by the committee “between Morell and Shapiro, Shapiro and journalists, and Shapiro and the Biden campaign reveal the extent of this effort.”
On October 19, the same day Morell had sent the letter to the Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) and recruited former intelligence officials to sign on to the statement, he emailed Shapiro that he “[s]hould have something to give to the media through you tomorrow afternoon.”
Later that day, he sent Shapiro “some thoughts when dealing with reporters.”
Morell told Shapiro that “between us,” the Biden campaign had preferred a specific Washington Post reporter to run the statement first, and also sent a lengthy script of information to share at various levels of sourcing: on the record, off the record, and on background.
“Between us, the campaign would like [redacted] to go first. Please share with the campaign when you share with [redacted]. But by all means, get it to other reporters as well,” the 8:21 pm email read.
Off the record information given in the email read: “Make sure reporters know that we are not making a call on whether the materials are true or not, just that Moscow played a role in getting the information out. I’m afraid people might miss the point and say we are saying this is all disinformation.”
