Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe said on Monday that the information published by The New York Post that allegedly came from Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of a “Russian disinformation campaign.”
Ratcliffe’s comments came after Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), the House Intelligence Committee chairman, said the scandal surrounding the Bidens and a Ukrainian gas company is a “smear” coming “from the Kremlin.”
“Hunter Biden’s laptop is not part of some Russian disinformation campaign,” Ratcliffe said in an interview with Fox Business. “Let me be clear: The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress.”
Ratcliffe said the FBI is now in possession of the laptop. He said the FBI’s investigation is “not centered around Russian disinformation.”
Issues have been raised concerning the chain of custody of the laptop since two allies of President Trump were involved, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former White House strategist Steve Bannon. But besides speculation from Schiff and the media, nothing ties the laptop to Moscow.
The first email published by the Post last week purports Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a top executive of the Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings in 2015. Joe Biden has previously said that he never spoke with Hunter about his overseas business dealings.
Hunter Biden landed a high-paying job with Burisma Holdings after the Obama administration orchestrated a coup in Ukraine. Joe Biden has been accused of leveraging a US loan to Kyiv to pressure Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor investigating corruption at the company.
