Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that Morell misled the signers when he assured them that he would get the letter cleared by the CIA the following day. In fact, the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board fast-tracked approval in 5.5 hours. The PCRB added a disclaimer that its clearance was not proof of CIA verification of the claims. The disclaimer was not included in the published letter.
In addition, it has come to light that a CIA employee working for the PCRB solicited a signature for the letter from former CIA analyst David Cariens, according to a written statement by Cariens to the Subcommittees on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and Intelligence.
The ex-CIA chief who wrote the letter signed by 51 former intelligence officials falsely claiming that emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop published by The Post before the 2020 election were Russian disinformation, assured his fellow signatories that he would “clear the statement with the Publication Review Board at CIA” in record time the following day.
In an October 18, 2020, email obtained by The Post, Michael Morell asks his fellow spooks, including former CIA Directors John Brennan, Leon Panetta and Mike Hayden, to sign the letter, explaining that he and former CIA agent Marc Polymeropoulos had “drafted the attached because we believe the Russians were involved in some way in the Hunter Biden email issue and because we think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week’s debate and we want to give the VP a talking point to use in response.”
Morell asks the CIA alumni in the group to “highlight your Russia work” in their affiliations when they sign the letter and assures them that he will secure pre-publication clearance from the CIA “tomorrow.”
But the letter was published by Politico the following day, Oct. 19, 2020, leaving little time for the required pre-publication review by the CIA, a lifelong obligation for all former agency employees.
It also omitted the boilerplate disclaimer required by the CIA to be included in any such intelligence assessment, which would have declared: “All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the Central Intelligence Agency.”
Morell was in a rush to secure the official approval for the letter from the CIA, because, as he explained in his email, the imperative was to provide a “talking point” for then-candidate Joe Biden in the final campaign debate against incumbent President Donald Trump in just three days’ time.
“Either he lied or somebody at the CIA violated their own policies,” says lawyer Tim Parlatore, who has spent the past year pursuing the 51 intelligence officials on behalf of Trump.
“When you think about the speed at which the CIA works in their pre-publication process, that would be pretty stunning to get an OK that quickly without the required disclaimers. It would implicate someone within the CIA in the plot against the president [Trump].”
He points out that the CIA and other government agencies have harshly punished other such breaches of the vital security provision.
Former Navy SEAL Matthew Bissonnette was forced to pay the federal government $6.8 million for violating pre-publication and non-disclosure obligations when he published his book “No Easy Day,” about his role in the raid that killed Osama bin Laden.
Parlatore did not receive a reply from John Hoffister Hedley, chairman of the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board, when he wrote last May urging action on the “egregious breach by several former CIA employees that appears to have been overlooked by your agency.”
The CIA did not respond to The Post’s request for comment Friday.
