Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails

We are all individuals who devoted significant portions of our lives to national security. Some of us served in senior positions in policy departments and agencies, and some of us served in senior positions in the Intelligence Community. Some of us were political appointees, and some were career officials. Many of us worked for presidents of both political parties.

We are all also individuals who see Russia as one of our nation’s primary adversaries. All of us have an understanding of the wide range of Russian overt and covert activities that undermine US national security, with some of us knowing Russian behavior intimately, as we worked to defend our nation against it for a career. A few of us worked against Russian information operations in the United States in the last several years.

Perhaps most important, each of us believes deeply that American citizens should determine the outcome of elections, not foreign governments. All of us agree with the founding fathers’concern about the damage that foreign interference in our politics can do to our democracy. It is for all these reasons that we write to say that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his timeserving on the Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.

We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post byP resident Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement — just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.

If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.

There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.

Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump. For the Russians at this point, with Trump down in the polls, there is incentive for Moscow to pull out the stops to do anything possible to help Trump win and/or to weaken Biden should he win. A “laptop op” fits the bill, as the publication of the emails are clearly designed to discredit Biden.

Such an operation would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy – the hacking (via cyber operations) and thed umping of accurate information or the distribution of inaccurate or misinformation. Russia did both of these during the 2016 presidential election – judgments shared by the US Intelligence Community, the investigation into Russian activities by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the entirety (all Republicans and Democrats) on the current Senate Intelligence Committee.

Such an operation is also consistent with several data points. The Russians, according to media reports and cybersecurity experts, targeted Burisma late last year for cyber collection and gained access to its emails. And Ukrainian politician and businessman Adriy Derkach, identified and sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for being a 10-year Russian agent interfering in the 2020 election, passed purported materials on Burisma and Hunter Biden to Giuliani.

Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well. According to the Washington Post, citing four sources, “U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.”

In addition, media reports say that the FBI has now opened an investigation into Russian involvement in this case. According to USA Today, “…federal authorities are investigating whether the material supplied to the New York Post by Rudy Giuliani…is part of a smoke bomb of disinformation pushed by Russia.”

We do not know whether these press reports are accurate, but they do suggest concern within Executive Branch departments and agencies that mirrors ours. It is high time that Russia stops interfering in our democracy.

Signed by,

Jim Clapper
Former Director of National Intelligence
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
Former Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency
Former Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency

Mike Hayden
Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director, National Security Agency
Former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence

Leon PaneSa
Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Secretary of Defense

John Brennan
Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former White House Homeland Security and Counterterrorism Advisor
Former Director, Terrorism Threat Integration Center
Former Analyst and Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Thomas Finger
Former Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis
Former Assistant Secretary for Intelligence and Research, Department of State
Former Chair, National Intelligence Council

Rick LedgeS
Former Deputy Director, National Security Agency

John McLaughlin
Former Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director, Slavic and Eurasian Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency

Michael Morell
Former Acting Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency

Mike Vickers
Former Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence
Former Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Doug Wise
Former Deputy Director, Defense Intelligence Agency
Former Senior CIA Operations Officer

Nick Rasmussen
Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center

Russ Travers
Former Acting Director, National Counterterrorism Center
Former Deputy Director, National Counterterrorism Center
Former Analyst of the Soviet Union and Russia, Defense Intelligence Agency

Andy Liepman
Former Deputy Director, National Counterterrorism Center
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

John Moseman
Former Chief of Staff, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Congressional Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Minority Staff Director, Senate Select CommiSee on Intelligence

Larry Pfeiffer
Former Chief of Staff, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director, White House Situation Room

Jeremy Bash
Former Chief of Staff, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Chief of Staff, Department of Defense
Former Chief Counsel, House Permanent Select CommiSee on Intelligence

Rodney Snyder
Former Chief of Staff, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Intelligence Programs, National Security Council
Chief of Station, Central Intelligence Agency

Glenn Gerstell
Former General Counsel, National Security Agency

David B. Buckley
Former Inspector General, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Democratic Staff Director, House Permanent Select CommiSee on Intelligence
Former Counterespionage Case Officer, United States Air Force

Nada Bakos
Former Analyst and Targeting Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

PaSy Brandmaier
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Associate Director for Military Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Director of Congressional Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency

James B. Bruce
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, National Intelligence Council
Considerable work related to Russia

David Cariens
Former Intelligence Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency
50+ Years Working in the Intelligence Community

Janice Cariens
Former Operational Support Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Paul Kolbe
Former Senior Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Chief, Central Eurasia Division, Central Intelligence Agency

Peter Corsell
Former Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency

BreS Davis
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Director of the Special Activities Center for Expeditionary Operations, CIA

Roger Zane George
Former National Intelligence Officer
Steven L. Hall

Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Chief of Russian Operations, Central Intelligence Agency

Kent Harrington
Former National Intelligence Officer for East Asia, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of Public Affairs, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Chief of Station, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency

Don Hepburn
Former Senior National Security Executive

Timothy D. Kilbourn
Former Dean, Sherman Kent School of Intelligence Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Former PDB Briefer to President George W. Bush, Central Intelligence Agency

Ron Marks
Former Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Twice former staff of the Republican Majority Leader

Jonna Hiestand Mendez
Technical Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Emile Nakhleh
Former Director of the Political Islam Strategic Analysis Program, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Senior Intelligence Analyst, Central Intelligence Agency

Gerald A. O’Shea
Senior Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Served four tours as Chief of Station, Central Intelligence Agency

David Priess
Former Analyst and Manager, Central Intelligence Agency
Former PDB Briefer, Central Intelligence Agency

Pam Purcilly
Former Deputy Director of Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Director of the Office of Russian and European Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Former PDB Briefer to President George W. Bush, Central Intelligence Agency

Marc Polymeropoulos
Former Senior Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Acting Chief of Operations for Europe and Eurasia, Central Intelligence Agency

Chris Savos
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Officer

Nick Shapiro
Former Deputy Chief of Staff and Senior Advisor to the Director, Central Intelligence Agency

John Sipher
Former Senior Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Deputy Chief of Russian Operations, Central Intelligence Agency

Stephen Slick
Former Senior Director for Intelligence Programs, National Security Council
Former Senior Operations Office, Central Intelligence Agency

Cynthia Strand
Former Deputy Assistant Director for Global Issues, Central Intelligence Agency

Greg Tarbell
Former Deputy Executive Director, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Analyst of the Soviet Union and Russia, Central Intelligence Agency

David Terry
Former Chairman of the National Intelligence Collection Board
Former Chief of the PDB, Central Intelligence Agency
Former PDB Briefer to Vice President Dick Cheney, Central Intelligence Agency

Greg Treverton
Former Chair, National Intelligence Council

John Tullius
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

David A. Vanell
Former Senior Operations Officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Winston Wiley
Former Director of Analysis, Central Intelligence Agency
Former Chief, Counterterrorism Center, Central Intelligence Agency

Kristin Wood
Former Senior Intelligence Officer, Central Intelligence Agency
Former PDB Briefer, Central Intelligence Agency

In addition, nine additional former IC officers who cannot be named publicly also support the arguments in this letter.