Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails

October 19, 2020

We are all individuals who devoted significant portions of our lives to national security. Some of us served in senior positions in policy departments and agencies, and some of us served in senior positions in the Intelligence Community. Some of us were political appointees, and some were career officials. Many of us worked for presidents of both political parties.

[OCS: The letter starts with a truism. However, we see an appeal to authority fallacy: because we have credible education, experience, or position, what we say, imply, or infer should also be considered credible. Likewise, the suggestion that working under different political parties implies some form of bipartisan impartiality is also false. Unfortunately, neither an appeal to authority nor the false claim of bipartisan impartiality says anything about motivations when the statement was written. The fact is that most long-term government employees work under multiple administrations only suggests they want to keep their position, nothing more nor less.]

We are all also individuals who see Russia as one of our nation’s primary adversaries. All of us have an understanding of the wide range of Russian overt and covert activities that undermine US national security, with some of us knowing Russian behavior intimately, as we worked to defend our nation against it for a career. A few of us worked against Russian information operations in the United States in the last several years.

[OCS: Another truism about Russia being one of our nation’s primary adversaries. There is no way to gauge their depth of understanding, especially that of political appointees and high-ranking bureaucrats who rely on specialized staff briefings.]

Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American citizens should determine the outcome of elections, not foreign governments. All of us agree with the founding fathers’ concern about the damage that foreign interference in our politics can do to our democracy.

[OCS: While most may “believe” that our domestic elections should be free from foreign interference, nothing is said about domestic interference from malicious third parties.]

It is for all these reasons that we write to say that 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.

[OCS: The reason they do not mention is political partisanship that is heavily, if not exclusively, biased toward the Democrat Party and the election of Joe Biden.

At the time this letter was written, the FBI had in its possession a copy of the receipt bearing Hunter Biden’s personal information and signature. The material contents on the laptop could easily be confirmed by the family – who refused to comment – and third-party addressees, including Hunter Biden’s business associates.

The hallmark of any disinformation operation is the appearance of authenticity, so the use of the term “classic earmarks” is both disingenuous and misleading.]

We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement -- just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.

[OCS: If the letter’s signatories state they do not know if the information is true or possess any evidence of Russian involvement, their collective unfounded “suspicions” should be regarded as politically motivated. They should be held accountable for actions that interfered with a presidential election.]

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.

[OCS: This is a claim based on nothing – unsubstantiated speculation at best, partisan duplicity at worst.]

There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.

Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump. For the Russians at this point, with Trump down in the polls, there is incentive for Moscow to pull out the stops to do anything possible to help Trump win and/or to weaken Biden should he win. A “laptop op” fits the bill, as the publication of the emails are clearly designed to discredit Biden.

Such an operation would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy – the hacking (via cyber operations) and the dumping of accurate information or the distribution of inaccurate or misinformation. Russia did both of these during the 2016 presidential election – judgments shared by the US Intelligence Community, the investigation into Russian activities by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the entirety (all Republicans and Democrats) on the current Senate Intelligence Committee.

Such an operation is also consistent with several data points. The Russians, according to media reports and cybersecurity experts, targeted Burisma late last year for cyber collection and gained access to its emails. And Ukrainian politician and businessman Adriy Derkach, identified and sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for being a 10-year Russian agent interfering in the 2020 election, passed purported materials on Burisma and Hunter Biden to Giuliani.

[OCS: This is pure bafflegab designed to lend some measure of authenticity to their unfounded speculations.

One could point to testimonial and documentary evidence that the Obama/Biden Administration and Hillary Clinton conspired, colluded, and coordinated with Ukrainian sources to interfere with a presidential election. Also, the Ukrainian government was complicit in an attempt to damage the Trump candidacy in collusion with members of the Democrat Party.

As for relying on media reports – we know they are not reliable sources and have published anonymously-sourced lies as truths. Likewise relying on cybersecurity experts like Democrat-connected CrowdStrike, who has published unsubstantiated rumors about Russian hacking as fact, is foolhardy.]

Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well. According to the Washington Post, citing four sources, “U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.”

[OCS: What professional intelligence official would cite the overtly partisan (and untrustworthy) Washington Post and their anonymous sources as a credible source of information?]

In addition, media reports say that the FBI has now opened an investigation into Russian involvement in this case. According to USA Today, “…federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the New York Post by Rudy Giuliani…is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.”

[OCS: USA Today, another overtly partisan media source with their anonymous tipsters.

The corrupt FBI has proven to be untrustworthy for political investigations. They knew the Steele Dossier was fiction early on, yet they continued to persecute American citizens.] 

We do not know whether these press reports are accurate, but they do suggest concern within Executive Branch departments and agencies that mirrors ours. It is high time that Russia stops interfering in our democracy.

[OCS: Again, with the weasel-words and admission these 51 credentialed fools knew nothing other than what they read in the partisan press.]

Signed by,

• Jim Clapper, Former Director of National Intelligence
• Mike Hayden, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
• Leon Panetta, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
• John Brennan, Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
• Rick Ledgett, Former Deputy Director, National Security Agency
• John McLaughlin, Former Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency
• Michael Morell, Former Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency

[OCS: Partial list – the full letter can be found here – <Source>]