The 51 former intelligence officials who suggested Hunter Biden’s laptop was Russian disinformation could lose their security clearances, Republican lawmakers indicated this week.
The potential action of revoking the security clearances would fulfill a campaign pledge by Vice President-elect J.D. Vance. “You cannot lie, take your position of public trust, and lie to the American people for political purposes,” Vance said. “It’s disgraceful. And people have to suffer consequences for it.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has not indicated if he will bring a measure to the House floor to fulfill the campaign promise. President-elect Donald Trump’s landslide victory fueled Republicans maintaining the House majority and Johnson’s job as Speaker.
Republican lawmakers, however, voiced support this week for revoking the clearances.
“I think we should scrub all the legacy clearances to see whether the people need to have them and for what purpose, and unless they’re working for a company in a role that makes sense, they should be taken away,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) told the Washington Times. “Most on that list [of 51], I would include in that scrubbing.”
The 51 intelligence officials “should all lose their security clearances,” Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) told the paper.
Trump ally Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said “it should be an option.”
After the “laptop from hell” story broke before the 2020 election, 51 intel officials signed a letter that insinuated Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. The letter was peddled by Politico under the title, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.” Most establishment media organizations then used the Politico article to discount the revelations from the laptop.
President Joe Biden cited the story during a 2020 presidential debate with Trump to discredit the laptop’s contents. The story was reportedly planted by Secretary of State Antony Blinken for Biden to use during the event.
The 51 signatories, however, seemingly knew the Politico story was false at the time because the FBI had the laptop that Hunter abandoned at a Delaware computer repair shop. Apparently not a single one of the signatories of the infamous letter have retracted their made-up claim, Breitbart News reported in June.
Below are the 51 intel officers, who sometimes double as CNN and MSNBC media analysts:
- Jim Clapper
- Mike Hayden
- Leon Panetta
- John Brennan
- Thomas Finger
- Rick Ledgett
- John McLaughlin
- Michael Morell
- Mike Vickers
- Doug Wise
- Nick Rasmussen
- Russ Travers
- Andy Liepman
- John Moseman
- Larry Pfeiffer
- Jeremy Bash
- Rodney Snyder
- Glenn Gerstell
- David B. Buckley
- Nada Bakos
- Patty Brandmaier
- James B. Bruce
- David Cariens
- Janice Cariens
- Paul Kolbe
- Peter Corsell
- Brett Davis
- Roger Zane George
- Steven L. Hall
- Kent Harrington
- Don Hepburn
- Timothy D. Kilbourn
- Ron Marks
- Jonna Hiestand Mendez
- Emile Nakhleh
- Gerald A. O’Shea
- David Priess
- Pam Purcilly
- Marc Polymeropoulos
- Chris Savos
- Nick Shapiro
- John Sipher
- Stephen Slick
- Cynthia Strand
- Greg Tarbell
- David Terry
- Greg Treverton
- John Tullius
- David A. Vanell
- Winston Wiley
- Kristin Wood
Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former RNC War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
