Among those to sign their name to the letter were Obama CIA Director John Brennan, Obama Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, former George W. Bush CIA Director Michael Hayden, former Obama CIA Director Leon Panetta, and former Obama acting CIA Director Mike Morell, none of whom responded to the
Washington Examiner's questions. Glenn Gerstell, former National Security Agency general counsel, declined to comment. The vast majority of the other signatories did not provide on-the-record responses.
Russ Travers, former acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, did not answer the
Washington Examiner's questions but said “the general subject of Russian disinformation is hugely important” and provided a short statement that did not mention Hunter Biden or his laptop.
“As someone who spent 40+ years in intelligence — 20 of which on the Soviet/Russian target — I’ve watched their disinformation efforts and I both was/remain very concerned at how successful they’ve been,” Travers said. "I’d suggest you do three things: read the letter very closely — the author picked his words carefully; consider the bipartisan conclusions of experts regarding exactly what the Russians were doing at the time; and perhaps talk to some former Intel types that worked Russian disinformation. And then draw your own conclusions.”
In questions to the former officials, the
Washington Examiner noted that the allegations in their letter were publicly disputed by then-Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, that an independent forensic analysis has
reportedly found no sign the messages and images from the laptop are not real, that the recent intelligence community report on foreign influence in the 2020 election released by Biden’s top spy office made no mention of the laptop story, and that Hunter Biden has never directly disputed the authenticity of a single piece of data from the laptop.
Marc Polymeropoulos, a former senior operations officer for the CIA, told the
Washington Examiner: “The key point I would clearly reinforce is that we never stated that the laptop issue was a Russian 'disinformation’ operation, but rather that it had all the hallmarks of a Russian ‘information' operation. There is a very big difference in the intelligence world.”
Polymeropoulos added: “I can’t comment on how or why the media characterized the letter, as I was only involved in drafting the letter. I’d also prefer to refrain from comment on how the Biden campaign used the letter, other than point once again to the actual content of the letter as reflecting my professional view.”
Polymeropoulos also referenced an
interview he gave to
National Review in December, after it was made public that Hunter Biden was under federal investigation. He told that outlet that he and Morell “basically wrote” the letter and that “if I thought I was wrong, I’d say I was wrong.”