Former DNI Ratcliffe: Impeach Blinken Over Laptop Scheme

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe Sunday said former acting CIA Director Mike Morell and 50 former intelligence officers who claimed in a letter that Russia was linked to the device knew their statement was false. 

And, Ratcliffe told Fox News “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo that Secretary of State Antony Blinken should resign or face impeachment over his role behind the letter, among other issues. 

Earlier this month, Morell testified to members of the House Judiciary Committee that he enlisted his colleagues in the intelligence community to sign the letter, in the weeks before the 2020 election, claiming that the emails found on Hunter Biden were Russian disinformation after Joe Biden’s presidential campaign sought his help — and said that Blinken, then a Biden campaign official, was the person who reached out to him.

Ratcliffe, back before the 2020 election, made a statement denying that Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation scheme. 

“Antony Blinken and Mike Morrell and the 50 former intelligence officials who didn’t have access to intelligence but had put this letter out 14 hours after I made those statements on national TV,” said Ratcliffe. “They knew that the letter that they were going to put out was false at that point…it was essentially a hoax, a fraud on the American people intended to mislead them. And in the process, to frame a foreign government for something that was not taking place.”

Blinken, as a former deputy secretary of state, knew about “all of the demons that Hunter Biden was facing,” Ratcliffe added. “So the idea that when he became aware of a story that Hunter Biden was engaged in, you know, illicit drugs and prostitution and, you know, gun crimes, financial crimes, all of these things, the idea that he thought none of this is true and it’s the Russian government is just disingenuous.”

When Biden’s campaign realized what was at stake, “they needed to address it” and devised “a narrative that was false,” said Ratcliffe. “They got caught and were told that it was false, but they went ahead with it anyway which is why I think Antony Blinken, he should resign. “

And now, with so many people in power who not only orchestrated the laptop story but that of Russian collusion with former President Donald Trump, it stands out that Blinken, now the secretary of state, “orchestrated a hoax where he framed a foreign government for a crime or for misdeeds that he was committing.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin “is a terrible human being,” Ratcliffe added. “I hope he’s prosecuted for, among other things, war crimes in Ukraine. But when it comes to drug crimes, gun crimes, and financial crimes on the Biden family laptop, that’s on Joe Biden and his family, not on the Russian government.”

He said he’s also concerned about Blinken engaging with the Russian government, with Putin threatening to use nuclear weapons. 

“Everyone knows full well what has transpired, including the Russian government,” said Ratcliffe. “We very cheerily now have individuals that were associated with the intelligence community who in 2016, you know, created the Russia hoax to mislead the American people. In 2020 they did this particular hoax to help Biden and hurt Donald Trump in that election, and they were successful. So it begs the question what’s going to happen in 2024? How are they going to, you know, try and impose a false narrative?” 

China is also part of that concern, said Ratcliffe. 

“The bottom line is the Biden administration has been very good to and good for the CCP,” said Ratcliffe. “They very much want Joe Biden to return to the White House because he’s been good for Chinese business. Contrast that with Kevin McCarthy and Republicans in the House who have shone a light now on many of the abuses that the Chinese Communist Party has committed and continues to commit in this country.”