As part of the House probe into first son, the heads of the US intelligence agencies will be asked to reveal whether they publicly lied to cover up Hunter Biden’s shady foreign activities while his father was vice-president, Californian Republican and House Minority Leader, Kevin McCarthy was cited as saying by the New York Post.
“They should come in and talk to us. You’d want to ask these individuals what they knew and when. People can come in and talk to us and answer the questions. If that’s not the case there are times we will use the subpoena as well,” the House GOP leader added.
McCarthy cited the public letter released by 51 former intelligence agency officials on 19 October 2020, dismissing the first stories published by the Post regarding Hunter Biden’s potentially illicit overseas business dealings found on his abandoned laptop as “disinformation pushed by Russia”.
Dubbed the “laptop from hell”, it had included compromising emails, nude photos, and graphic videos, while shedding light on Hunter Biden’s “business deals” involving the trading of ‘cash for access’ to the elder Biden during his time as Barack Obama’s vice-president.
“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, made public two weeks before the 2020 presidential elections had stated.
At the time, Donald Trump's Democrat opponent, Joe Biden, repeatedly dismissed any knowledge of his son’s business activities – something he has continued to do since entering the White House. Most news outlets and social media companies at the time also did their utmost to sweep the story under the carpet. However, the hard drive information The Post first revealed has since been accepted as fact by even the most liberal media outlets, including the New York Times and Washington Post.
Despite this, none of the 51 intel officials who signed the aforementioned letter, including James Clapper, who served as director of National Intelligence from 2010 to 2017 when Joe Biden was VP, and former CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, apologized for discrediting the Hunter Biden story, McCarthy emphasized.
Thus, James Clapper had stood by his "statement made at the time," adding:
“… I think sounding such a cautionary note AT THE TIME was appropriate.”
“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?' 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?” McCarthy told the Post.
According to McCarthy, these questions have to be answered, as the intel community should not be allowed to “utilize their name in an improper way without correcting”.
According to the report, so far none of the intel chiefs that were signatories to the letter have made contact with House investigators regarding the Hunter Biden probe.
This comes after GOP members of the House Oversight Committee, including Senator John Kennedy (R-La), grilled FBI Director Christopher Wray last week over whistleblower allegations that his agents had used a specially devised scheme to “undermine derogatory information” concerning first son Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election.
Wray admitted on 4 August that the claims were “deeply troubling”, Politico reported.
“…this investigation needs to be completed on this gentleman and the results need to be reported to the American people,” Kennedy responded.
Republican senator from Wisconsin, Ron Johnson, said at the time he had “no faith” in the FBI or Justice Department to investigate Hunter Biden.
However, weighing in on this, McCarthy was cited as saying:
“I am going to give [Wray] the benefit of the doubt at this moment in time. We are going to ask the tough questions and if we don’t get the honest answers, there’s consequences.”
House Republicans have previously vowed to subpoena Hunter Biden should Republicans retake the House – something that is widely anticipated – after the November mid-term elections. That outcome would see McCarthy replace Nancy Pelosi as House Speaker.
According to the House GOP leader, more than 500 “preservation letters” have been sent to various agencies and individuals with demands not to destroy specific data and documents pertaining to the Hunter Biden probe.
“We have a responsibility of oversight,” McCarthy emphasized.