WASHINGTON, D.C. – New testimony by Michael Morell, a former Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and one of the 51 signatories of the “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails,” revealed that U.S.
judiciary.house.gov
From your link - (Letter to Antony Blinken from Congress of the US)
Snipped with emphasis by me.
On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published a report detailing how Hunter Biden used the position and influence of his father, now-President Joe Biden, for personal gain with the apparent awareness of President Biden.1 The article reported on several emails found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that he had abandoned in a Delaware computer shop. 2 The contents of the emails cast doubt on President Biden’s previous denials of speaking to his son about his international business dealings.
Within five days of the article, on October 19, 2020, 51 former intelligence officials released a public statement attempting to discredit the contents of the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden, stating that the story “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”3 News publications immediately ran with the statement, with Politico publishing a story with the conclusive headline, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former officials say.”4
Social media companies simultaneously restricted access to the Post story, including Twitter locking the Post’s and then-White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany’s accounts for sharing a link to the article.5 During the final presidential debate on October 22, then-Vice President Biden cited the public statement to rebut President Trump’s criticism of the Biden family business dealings, saying:
Look, there are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what this, [President Trump’s] accusing me of is a Russian plan. They have said this this has all the characteristics—four—five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except him and his good friend Rudy Giuliani.6
Subsequent reporting revealed that the New York Post story was not, as the public statement claimed and then-Vice President Biden parroted, part of a “Russian information operation.”7 This revelation nearly two years after the fact, however, was little consolation.
The concerted efforts to dismiss the serious allegations in the Post’s reporting and to suppress any discussion of the story played a substantial role in the 2020 election.
(…)
Morell further explained that one of his two goals in releasing the statement was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election.17 He testified:
Q: What was the intent of the statement?
A: There were two intents. One intent was to share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue; and, two, it was [to] help Vice President Biden.18
***
Chairman Jordan: You wanted to help the Vice President why?
A: Because I wanted him to win the election.
Chairman Jordan: You wanted him to win; that’s why?
A:
