Ex-intelligence officer knew ‘significant portion’ of Hunter Biden emails ‘had to be real’

ANKARA

One of the 51 intelligence veterans, who signed a letter outlining their belief that the disclosure of emails belonging to Hunter Biden, son of US President Joe Biden, may have been a product of a Russian misinformation campaign, said they knew a “significant portion” of that content was real.

Speaking to The Australian, Douglas Wise, a former deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, said that “all of us figured that a significant portion of that content had to be real to make any Russian disinformation credible.”

In an Oct. 14, 2020 news report, the New York Post alleged that leaked emails from Hunter Biden's laptop showed that then-Vice President Joe Biden was helping his son's business dealings in Ukraine.

The report claimed that a laptop abandoned by Hunter Biden had details of him using his father’s influence — when Biden was vice president under former President Barack Obama — to seal a deal with a Ukrainian businessman.

On Oct 19, 2020, 51 former intelligence officers, including former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA Director John Brennan — penned a letter suggesting the report “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”

Reporting the letter ahead of the 2020 presidential elections in the US, Politico ran the story with the headline “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say”

“The letter said it had the earmarks of Russian deceit and we should consider that as a possibility,” Wise said, adding: “It did not say Hunter Biden was a good guy, it didn’t say what he did was right and it wasn’t exculpatory, it was just a cautionary letter.”

Wise said that people should pay attention to the context of the letter which was possible interference of Russia in US politics.

“I don’t regret signing it because the context is important. Russians or even ill-intended conservative elements could have planted stuff in there.”