Fifty-one former intelligence officials signed off on the letter or public statement denouncing the Hunter Biden laptop emails as Russian disinformation. Natasha Bertrand, then of Politico, served as the intermediary between the Biden campaign, which had commissioned the statement, and the intelligence officials, who did the Biden campaign’s bidding, for her October19, 2020 report “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” They sought to cast doubt on the New York Post’s stellar reporting on the contents of Hunter Biden laptop. Among other thing, they shed too much light on the Biden family business.
We have routinely designated the former intelligence officials who signed the statement the fDirty 51. They are a disgrace to the “intelligence community.” They tend to reveal its corruption by low political motives. We have routinely designated these officials as the Dirty 51 in our comments on them.
Promptly after his inauguration this past January 20, President Trump promulgated an executive order stripping the security clearances of the Dirty 51. It is posted online here. I had forgotten that.
Now DNI Tulsi Gabbard has followed up by stripping the security clearances of an additional 37 intelligence officials. The New York Post first reported the story yesterday evening in “Tulsi Gabbard strips 37 security clearances over Obama-ordered intel report that launched Russiagate.” Via Scribd, the Post included a copy of Gabbard’s memo revoking the clearances (at the bottom). The Post story highlights the participation of this group of officials in the preparation of the ICA order by President Obama to associate Trump’s 2020 election victory with Russian meddling in the presidential campaign.
At NR, James Lynch adds: “Gabbard’s list of 37 officials features several signatories to a statement supporting House Democrats’ 2019 impeachment inquiry into Trump, which resulted in his first impeachment in 2020. It includes several national security officials from the Obama and Biden administrations, the last two Democratic administrations, which lasted a combined twelve years.”
For his part, President Obama has issued a statement through spokesman Patrick Rodenbush denying Gabbard’s assertion that he spearheaded a campaign to create false claims of Trump/Russia collusion during the 2016 presidential campaign. Obama dismissed Gabbard’s work as “bizarre allegations.” The statement is posted verbatim here on X and quoted by the Hill in a story that provides fuller context. I will only say that it seems to me a weak statement.
The Post story does not include any comments from the affected officials. I would like to know what they have to say. I was just doing my job?
