50 Former National Intelligence Officials Warn NY Post’s Hunter Biden Story Shows Signs of Russian Disinformation Campaign

Last updated on July 18th, 2023 at 12:17 pm

50 former national intelligence officials have warned that a report from The New York Post alleging nefarious business dealings on the part of Hunter Biden could be the signs of a Russian disinformation campaign to influence the November 3 election outcome.

“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,” the officials, including former CIA directors John Brennan and Leon Panetta, wrote in a letter. “If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this elec8on, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

“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,” they observe. 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.

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The officials point out that “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,” which Russian operatives have done before, namely during the 2016 presidential election.

Earlier this morning, President Donald Trump claimed a special prosecutor should investigate Hunter Biden. 

“We’ve got to get the attorney general to act,” Trump said during an interview with “Fox and Friends.” “He’s gotta act, and he’s gotta act fast, and he’s gotta appoint somebody.”The president added: “This is major corruption, and we have to know about this before the election. The attorney general has to act.”

A New York Post investigation published emails suggesting Hunter Biden introduced his father, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, to an executive with Burisma Holdings––a Ukrainian gas firm––in 2015.  The story received criticism for shaky reporting and Twitter’s attempts to block the news outlet from sharing the story received criticism from Republicans who accused the tech giant of censoring conservative voices.

Alan Herrera

Alan is a writer, editor, and news junkie based in New York.