As the Democrats' narrative around the made-to-seem authoritative letter declaring Hunter Biden's laptop to be Russian disinformation falls apart, there are many questions begging answers from the Biden campaign to the highest levels of the Biden administration as well as the 51 former intelligence and national security officials who signed it.
But now Fox News Contributor Dan Hoffman, a former CIA station chief who revealed in an op-ed this week for the first time that he had received the letter and was asked to sign it, is explaining why he didn't add his name when he was asked to do so by former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell.
In today’s @WashTimesOpEd https://t.co/tLfmlaJhOb
— Daniel Hoffman (@danielhoffmanDC) April 27, 2023
"I got the letter October 18, 2020," Hoffman said Friday on Fox News Channel's America Reports. He noted that, "at first glance, it seemed natural" to blame Putin for the existence of, and revelations from, Hunter Biden's laptop from hell. "But, at the same time, there was no evidence, and the letter noted there was no evidence" backing up the conclusion, Hoffman added. "We needed to do the forensics," he said, in order to assert a conclusion.
Hoffman added that, when he received the letter and was asked to sign it, there was no opportunity to edit its contents or "debate" its merits. Instead, the letter was already in its final form and being passed around seeking endorsements.
In making his decision not to add his name, Hoffman said he believed "it was not up to us to speculate" without evidence showing a connection to Russia. "So, I didn't sign the letter — I typically don't put my name to other people's words," Hoffman added, "and I didn't respond."
Hoffman's judgement, of course, turned out to be spot-on. Hunter's laptop was not the work of a KGB disinformation scheme, and the same outlets that heralded the letter when it was released have since had to sheepishly confirm the veracity of the laptop from hell.
What Hoffman said he didn't know at the time he was received the letter and was asked to sign it is that "Michael [Morell] was aware of the [Biden] campaign's interest," noting the recent revelations from testimony by the former CIA Deputy Director that then-senior Biden campaign advisor Antony Blinken — who is now the U.S. Secretary of State — had a conversation with Morell about the issue of Hunter's laptop. "There's a straight line from that, to the letter, to the debate" in which Biden used the letter and its signatories as a shield against criticism of his family and its business dealings," Hoffman added.
Morell's testimony, Hoffman explained, "that's the part that changed the calculus" and led him to reveal he too had been asked to sign the letter. Watch:
After revealing that he was among the group of former officials asked to sign a now-infamous letter saying Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation, Dan Hoffman explains why he didn't. pic.twitter.com/bFO5sbQhJx
— Spencer Brown (@itsSpencerBrown) April 28, 2023
Guy's thorough rehash of the former officials' debunked letter and the Democrat-orchestrated conspiracy to keep Americans from learning about Hunter's very real laptop filled with his (and his family's) very messy life is an excellent reminder that the whole affair was an "absolute scandal, from start to finish."