House Republicans conducting those very high-profile investigations in which they’ve been engaged don’t seem to have a very close grasp of the facts.
The Republican majority on the House Judiciary Committee recently released a report evidently claiming that the CIA — a fixture of the intelligence community — had promoted a group letter expressing concerns about the possibility that reports containing claims about files ostensibly originating with Hunter Biden could’ve been an influence operation tied to overseas, like the country saw with Russian efforts at online misinformation before the 2016 presidential election. The allegation that the CIA in any way meaningfully promoted the letter is unsubstantiated, Democrats have explained. Evidence actually points to essentially no agency involvement beyond routine clearance like is ordinarily provided to texts written by persons with connections to the agency.
“The Cariens email states that Mr. Cariens heard about the letter via a phone call with a PCRB,” a Democratic press release said. “But there is substantial reason to question Mr. Cariens’ recollection of what happened, given the evidence and testimony on hand.” Jordan used claims from David Cariens to support assertions that there was some official reaction represented by the letter to the spread of reporting on the Bidens, and PCRB refers to a federal entity that conducts those reviews ahead of publication, which are meant to guard against circumstances like disclosures of sensitive details where spreading the information could significantly endanger security.
Democrats also cited an email in which Cariens outlined his interest in joining the letter… and in that missive, he never mentioned any PCRB outreach. Democratic Reps. Jerry Nadler (N.Y.) and Jim Himes (Conn.) helped publicize the truth of this situation. Nadler is the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, and Himes has the concurrent position on the Intelligence panel.
