0
0
Washington is abuzz with the Trump show, and if the new President managed to get much sleep, those attempting to sift through and properly report on his pile of Day 1 executive orders probably didn’t.
Among the lesser publicized orders was one entitled “Holding former government officials accountable for election interference and improper disclosure of sensitive government information,” in which he revoked the security clearances of 49 of 51 former intelligence officials who signed their names on a letter stating that the New York Post story in late 2020 about Hunter Biden’s laptop being discovered at a repair shop in Delaware had, “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation”.
This led social media organizations like Meta and Twitter to censure Americans who shared the Post story, however it was later revealed by the Justice Department that the laptop was in fact Hunter Biden’s and that it did contain potentially incriminating information including images of the younger Biden engaging in illegal drug use.
Special Counsel David Weiss eventually called questions about the laptop’s authenticity a “conspiracy theory,” and in a June rally last year, Trump suggested that the 51 former intelligence officials should be prosecuted.
None of these individuals maintain current security clearances officially, but the executive order also directs the office of the Director of National Intelligence to investigate “any additional inappropriate activity that occurred within the Intelligence Community, by anyone contracted by the Intelligence Community or by anyone who held a security clearance, related to the letter signed by the 51 former intelligence officials”.
The Intelligence Community as defined in the order has historically been unwilling to ever investigate or penalize past members regardless of which branch of the community they worked for, and it would be a significant break in precedent amid an area of government often hailed as nonpartisan to do so.
For example, among the signatories was former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who is on the record as committing significant purgery before Congress when he stated categorically that there was no mass data collection going on at the National Security Agency (NSA) before Edward Snowden’s revelations that the NSA was actually collecting data equivalent to the entire internet and telecommunications activity of the country. He was never charged with purgery.
Setting the record
Former CIA directors John Brennan, John McLaughlin, and Michael Morell, were also included in Trump’s order.
“Federal policymakers must be able to rely on analysis conducted by the Intelligence Community and be confident that it is accurate, crafted with professionalism, and free from politically motivated engineering to affect political outcomes in the United States,” the order read. “The signatories willfully weaponized the gravitas of the Intelligence Community to manipulate the political process and undermine our democratic institutions”.
Republicans have argued that the letter was evidence of deep-state collusion between the CIA and the Biden campaign to cover up other materials on the laptop that they believe show improper foreign business dealings by the Biden family, according to CNN.
While an investigation into those business dealings couldn’t eventually put a clear case together, Biden repeatedly used his presidential powers to protect members of his family from both investigation and prosecution—even as his presidency was down to its last hours, leaving one to wonder just how much the Justice Department really pursued these connections, which revealed that in negotiations with a Chinese state-owned energy business, one of Hunter’s business partners, James Gilliar suggested a 10% stake for a figure known as “the big guy” who Hunter would eventually confirm was his father Joe.
Biden’s order also goes after his former National Security Advisor John Bolton, who published a memoir after being fired which the order claims contained “sensitive information drawn from his time in government”. Bolton’s clearances were also revoked, though out of government for 5 years, he was unlikely to have had any.
“The memoir’s reckless treatment of sensitive information undermined the ability of future presidents to request and obtain candid advice on matters of national security from their staff,” the order points out.
Unlikely to impact these former officials, who are now all private citizens, the order is likely a political move to prevent the 49 (two of the signatories have since died) from seeking intelligence roles in future administrations, and perhaps, if Trump’s luck holds, uncover ties between these former officials and anyone currently holding positions in a Trump-led Intelligence Community. WaL
We Humbly Ask For Your Support—Follow the link here to see all the ways, monetary and non-monetary.
PICTURED ABOVE: Joe Biden embraces his son Hunter on Inauguration Day, 2021. PC: Chair of the Joint Chiefs, via Flickr CC 2.0.
