Prominent former intelligence officials who sought to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story as Russian disinformation four years ago remain defiant about their willingness to abuse their security status to engage in election interference.
On Thursday, Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee released the transcripts of interviews with several of the 51 officials who signed the infamous 2020 letter to Politico writing the laptop had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.” Among those interviewed include former National Intelligence Director James Clapper, former CIA Director John Brennan, former Acting CIA Director Michael Morell, former National Counterterrorism Center Director Nick Rasmussen, and former CIA official Nick Shapiro, all of whom expressed no regrets about signing the letter.
“I don’t have regrets about signing the statement, given what was known at the time,” Rasmussen told lawmakers. “I regret that the statement has been drawn into a political controversy and regret that that is so.”
John Brennan, who ran the CIA throughout President Barack Obama’s second term, said he only regretted that the infamous letter had “given fuel to those who want to create this furor over it.”
“What the press of what individuals might have done to leverage it for their own purposes or leadership or whatever, that’s up to them,” Brennan told lawmakers in May last year. “I did this as a private citizen.”
Former Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, who resigned in September after his wife suffered a stroke, had pressed former National Intelligence Director James Clapper about
