One of the first actions President Donald Trump took when he returned to the White House was to suspend security clearance for former national security officials who signed off on the now infamous Hunter Biden laptop memo.
For those who forget. More than 50 former senior intelligence officials signed a letter in the fall of 2020 during the height of the presidential race that the laptop in a repair shop in New York was not Hunter Biden’s laptop and, according to the memo, “has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Joe Biden cited that memo in a presidential debate. Either he was completely blind about the crimes being committed by his son or he was completely involved.
At that time, the FBI had control of the laptop and had to be completely aware that the machine was in fact the property of Hunter Biden, and the memo was used to lie to the American people in an attempt to deflect from the negative press that would certainly accompany the truth about the laptop.
It worked.
Biden was elected president, and in post election polls, a large number of those who voted for Biden said that if the laptop belonged to Hunter Biden, that fact would have changed their vote.
During Hunter Biden’s trial, the laptop was used as evidence, and Hunter Biden admitted that the laptop was indeed his.
And what was on the laptop?
What we know was it included video recordings of Hunter Biden using illegal drugs, having sex with prostitutes and discussing how he was funding his family which including his father.
That’s what we know. Who knows what else was on the laptop that we may never know.
But these highly respected insiders of national intelligence told us they were “deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case.”
“If we are right,” these experts continued, “this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”
The truth was exactly the opposite. It was the intelligence community trying to influence how Americans cast their votes by lying.
Several would ask, “Why would the intelligence community lie about such an important fact?”
Let’s for a moment assume they actually believed what they were saying. For a moment let’s give them full faith and credit, the way we used to do about everything we heard from our government because we trusted them to be honorable public servants. If they in their professional opinion and heart of hearts believed what they were selling, then Donald Trump is completely justified and duty bound to revoke their access to national security information. If they don’t know the difference between someone’s actual laptop and a Russian attempt at disinformation, then they are incompetent at their jobs.
Which is just one of the many reasons trust in government is at an all-time low.
That certainly wasn’t the only information we received from the trusted deep state. Dr. Anthony Fauci, who can never be held accountable for the lies he told under oath to Congress, also misled the public about the pandemic. There is little dispute that Coronavirus originated in a Chinese lab in Wuhan during a gain-of-function experiment, something being funding by American taxpayers, and Fauci deflected, denied and lied about that now known fact.
Under oath. To Congress.
The information flowing out of Washington from the lies about Hunter’s laptop to COVID to the condition of the economy to the “perfect” exit form Afghanistan and on and on, we started to feel like the Russian people being informed by Joseph Stalin — the government always pushed the view that made us believe we needed more of them to tell us how we should function.
And none of it was true.
The legacy of the Biden Administration will be marred with lie after lie, including the biggest fraud perpetrated on the American people, and that was the “Joe is at the top of his game lie.”
It wasn’t until a June debate displayed for the entire population just how bad the cognitive decline of Joe Biden really was. And the viewers of CNN ands MSNBC started to abandon the liars in droves.
Those who signed off on the memo about the laptop were incompetent at best. That’s if you believe that they believed they were actually telling the truth. I’m not sure if very many actually believe that.
Which leads to the other possibility — the intelligence community at the highest level was actually lying to the American people.
The fact is this is the more likely scenario.
Senator Chuck Schumer (D-N. Y.) let the truth slip late in Trump’s presidency when Trump was on to their deceptions.
“You take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday to get back at you,” Schumer said on an interview with Rachel Maddow. “Even for a practical, hard-nosed business man, (Trump) is being really dumb to do that. From what I am told, they are very upset for how he has treated them and talked about them.”
And what followed? This memo, charges of crimes against Trump for the first time in American history. Aid provided to local district prosecutors who had a vendetta against Trump.
Schumer was right. The intelligence community — not the president, not Congress — runs the United States of America. And if you challenge them, they respond.
Trump has now returned, and the first group he has targeted to drain in the swamp is the intelligence community.
If they were lying on that memo, and they were, then Trump has every right to ban them from receiving or being involved with any sensitive information about American intelligence.
They will make the rounds on all the Trump-hating networks to explain how he is a tyrant, how they provided the best information with the known facts at the time, but we know better. Even Biden supporters have had to admit the laptop was real.
And that fact alone makes those intelligence officials unreliable, untrustworthy and certainly disqualified from being involved in future intelligence.
The agency will be populated with those who can be trusted to at least, tell the truth to the American people.
Retribution, or accountability? Either way, it was the right call.
Earl Watt is the owner and publisher of the Leader & Times in Liberal, Kansas. Watt started his career in journalism in 1991 at the Southwest Daily Times. During his career, the newspaper has won a total of 17 Sweepstakes awards from the Kansas Press Association for editorial content and 18 Sweepstakes awards for advertising. Watt has been recognized with more than 70 first place awards for writing in categories from sports and column to best front pages, best sports pages and best opinion pages. Watt is a member of the Sons of the American Revolution and is the descendant of several patriots who fought for America's freedom and independence.
