Jim Jordan: This was a total political operation
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan sounds off on 'The Ingraham Angle' following Morell testimony, claims from IRS official's lawyer.
Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, said then-candidate Joe Biden wrongly made the letter from 51 intelligence officials claiming Hunter Biden's laptop was Russian disinformation "seem organic" despite allegedly knowing his soon-to-be State Department chief helped "strategize" it.
The letter, signed by 51 individuals — including Obama-era CIA Director John Brennan, Bush-era CIA Director Michael Hayden, former DNI James Clapper, former CIA chief of staff Jeremy Bash, former acting CIA Director Michael Morell and former National Intelligence Council Chair Thomas Finger — asserted the laptop had "classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Morell testified before Jordan's committee and that of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, that then-Biden campaign adviser Antony Blinken was "the impetus" behind the October 2020 letter's inception.
"When the story came out on Oct. 14, 2020, about the ‘Biden business operation’ and whether then-Vice President Joe Biden was involved, there was some concern that he was — then quickly it turns into this political operation — that letter that became the basis for suppressing the story and keeping it from the American people just days before the most important election we have," Jordan said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, listens as President Biden delivers remarks. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
"The 14th, the [New York] Post has a story. The 17th, Tony Blinken… contacts Mike Morell and gets him interested in this. Mike Morell looks at it the next day, organizes on the 18th all these other people to sign the letter. The 19th, the letter goes out."
Jordan added Morell concocted the letter in time for the NBC presidential debate on Oct. 22 because he thought then-President Donald Trump would bring up the laptop issue, which he did.
Morell and Blinken wanted a statement Joe Biden could use to rebut Trump's likely allegations, "because, as Mr. Morell said, they wanted [Biden] to win," he continued.
The laptop indeed did come up, to which Biden cited the letter, and Trump wondered aloud if the public was to believe the laptop was therefore another "Russia, Russia, Russia [hoax]."
Ex-CIA acting director Michael Morell speaks in 2019. (REUTERS/Joshua Roberts)
Jordan later claimed Biden Presidential Campaign Chairman Steven Ricchetti called Morell after the fact and thanked him for his work.
"It was a total political operation, and the most important fact is [the letter] was false. [The laptop] wasn't Russian disinformation. The laptop story looks to be true."
Jordan and host Laura Ingraham said Trump's stated concern the letter was politicized turned out to be correct.
"The way then-Vice President Biden did it was he made it seem like it was organic — and understand it was choreographed all the way," Jordan added.
The chairman further noted the 51 officials' names on the joint letter were accompanied by their current or former titles, giving the document the "imprimatur" of accuracy.
"That's the scariest thing of all," he said. "And that letter became the basis for keeping this information from the American people."
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman contributed to this report.