FOX News contributor Leslie Marshall and former DOJ official John Yoo join ‘FOX News @ Night’ to discuss the House Oversight Committee issuing subpoenas to Hunter Biden and President Biden’s brother James Biden. An alleged campaign finance violation could ensnare Secretary of State Antony Blinken and 51 former senior intelligence officials who asserted without evidence in 2020 that the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
America First Legal, a conservative organization run by former Donald Trump White House aide Stephen Miller, filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission in late October, alleging a “coordinated communication” and an unreported in-kind contribution to the Joe Biden presidential campaign and related entities, in violation of federal law. The complaint claims that the Biden for President campaign in 2020, the Biden Victory Fund, the Democratic National Committee, and the Biden Action Fund should have reported on coordinating efforts.
A survey from 2022 reveals four out of five Americans who followed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal thought that honest news coverage would have changed the outcome of the 2020 election. The “Letter of 51” released on Oct. 19, 2020, weeks before the Nov. 8 presidential election between Biden and Trump, included signatures from former Obama administration officials such as former Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan, former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and former CIA director and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, along with former George W. Bush DNI Michael Hayden. The complaint notes that Panetta and Clapper donated to the Biden Victory Fund and the Biden for President campaign in 2020.
In March, former CIA Deputy and Acting Director Michael Morrell testified to the House Judiciary Committee and House Intelligence Committees that on Oct. 17, 2020, then-Biden campaign adviser Blinken contacted him to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story first reported by the New York Post. The complaint cited an April statement from the House Judiciary Committee summarizing the Morrell testimony. “Morell testified that his communication with Blinken was one of a few communications he had with the Biden campaign, explaining that he also received a call from Steve Ricchetti, Chairman of the Biden campaign, following the October 22 debate to thank him for writing the statement,” the House Judiciary Committee press release from April said. “Morell also explained that the Biden campaign helped to strategize about the public release of the statement. Morell further explained that one of his two goals in releasing the statement was to help then-[former] Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election.”
The letter from intelligence officials provided cover and credibility for social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter to restrict the access and distribution of the Hunter Biden laptop story, first broken by the New York Post. Eventually, both the New York Times and Washington Post verified the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop. Also, during the first presidential debate between Trump and Biden, Biden referred to the laptop story as Russian disinformation. The complaint to the FEC argues that the “51 former intelligence officials” statement was part of a carefully orchestrated effort to influence the 2020 election, and AFL contends that the Biden campaign actively participated in drafting and disseminating the statement.
The complaint alleges that the disinformation campaign should be considered a “coordinated communication” under FEC regulations, subject to reporting requirements. The AFL complaint argues that the Biden campaign, through key individuals, actively participated in drafting and disseminating the statement, utilizing the national security credentials of the former intelligence officials to downplay the Hunter Biden laptop revelations.
The survey by Technometric Institute of Policy and Politics released in August 2022 found that almost four out of five Americans who followed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal thought that honest news coverage would have changed the outcome of the election.
Neither the Biden 2024 presidential campaign nor the Democratic National Committee responded to inquiries for this story. The State Department also did not respond to an inquiry about Blinken’s role. The complaint calls on the FEC to take action to uphold election integrity and ensure transparency in campaign coordination.
