The CIA said Thursday it gave false information to Congress about the “Spies Who Lie” who suggested incriminating documents from Hunter Biden’s laptop were Russian disinformation.
In the stunning twist that’s heightening congressional doubts about the impartiality and reliability of America’s premier spy agency, the CIA said in a letter acquired by The Post that former agency acting director Michael Morell was not a contractor at the time he organized the October 2020 laptop statement.
That contradicted the agency’s previous testimony to Congress that he was under contract.
“This mistake was based on a misreading of the contract documentation,” Robert Dugas, CIA deputy general counsel of litigations and investigations, wrote in a Wednesday letter to Morell’s lawyers, which the CIA acknowledged to The Post Thursday.
“CIA regrets the error in its initial provision of information in this matter.”
The walk-back stoked outrage among House Republicans, who provided the CIA with a copy of the report containing the agency-provided information last month before its release.
“With this after-the-fact revelation, it’s hard to believe anything the CIA says,” said Russell Dye, a spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee.
“The CIA confirmed this information multiple times for the committee, and only changed its story after Michael Morell complained.”
“They would now have us believe that Morell was on contract before and after the Hunter Biden statement, but miraculously was not on contract at the time of the statement — but they refuse to provide details,” Dye added.
“This new revelation only leaves us with more questions and concerns about the CIA’s truthfulness to Congress.”
Dugas’ letter says Morell had unpaid contracts during the years before and after the laptop statement — and doesn’t address whether the CIA may have misidentified other letter-signers, three of whom were under contract according to prior document production to Congress.
“Contrary to our April 25, 2024 submission, Mr. Morell did not have a contract with CIA on October 19, 2020,” Dugas’ letter says.
“Mr. Morell had two separate no-fee contracts with the Agency, one that began and ended in 2019, and another that began and ended in 2021.”
Dugas added: “The Agency did not pay Mr. Morell compensation for his services under either contract. As we believe you are aware, Mr. Morell retains a clearance and the ability to enter Agency facilities, as do many former Director and Acting Directors.”
He previously signed an April 25 letter to the House Judiciary Committee identifying Morell as a contractor at the time of the 2020 statement casting doubt on documents that linked then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to Chinese and Ukrainian dealings of his son Hunter and brother James Biden.
Three other laptop statement signers had “green badges” for contractors at the time, including ex-agency inspector general David Buckley, former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash and former National Security Agency deputy director Richard Ledgett, according to prior CIA communications with Congress.
Morell told Congress he organized 50 fellow intelligence agency alums to sign the statement saying Hunter Biden’s laptop had “the classic earmarks” of Russian disinformation to give Joe Biden a “talking point” ahead of a debate against then-President Donald Trump.
Biden used the statement to falsely claim at his second and final 2020 presidential debate with Trump that The Post’s reporting on his role in his family’s international business dealings was a “Russian plant” and “garbage.”
“There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he’s accusing me of is a Russian plant,” Biden said of Trump. “Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he’s saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani.”
The FBI, which took possession of the laptop in 2019 before a copy of the hard drive was provided to The Post in 2020, told Twitter on the day of the initial bombshell reporting that the laptop was authentic, but the bureau’s stance was not widely known until well after the election.
A CIA spokesperson told The Post: “We identified an error in information we provided in April to the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and House Judiciary Committee in the Committees’ Second Interim Joint Staff Report, when it was publicly issued on 25 June. As a result of this error, we initiated a review of our records and sent a letter to the Committees correcting and clarifying certain information we had provided regarding contract-related data.”
“Contrary to our original submission, we determined that former Acting Director Michael Morell did not have a contract with CIA on 19 October 2020,” the CIA said. “We regret our error which was based upon a misreading of contract documentation. We also corrected end dates of contractor badge status noted for several other individuals’ ‘green badges.’”