Secretary of State Antony Blinken is silent on whether he regrets his alleged efforts in helping discredit Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop that would later be used as evidence in Biden’s federal trial resulting in a conviction.
The ties between Blinken and Biden were brought into the forefront last year after former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell testified to the House Judiciary and Intelligence Committees, a Fox News Digital review found.
Morell testified that Blinken, as President Biden’s then-campaign senior adviser, ‘played a role in the inception’ of the public statement signed by intelligence officials claiming Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign just weeks before the 2020 presidential election.
‘In his transcribed interview, Morell testified that on or around October 17, 2020, you reached out to him to discuss the Hunter Biden laptop story,’ House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, and House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Turner, R-Ohio, said in a letter to Blinken last year as the committee was looking into the origin of the letter from 51 former intel officials published in Politico that warned the laptop, first reported on by the New York Post, had ‘all the classic earmarks’ of Russian disinformation.
‘According to Morell, although your outreach was couched as simply gathering Morell’s reaction to the Post story, it set in motion the events that led to the issuance of the public statement.’
‘Morell further explained that one of his two goals in releasing the statement was to help then-Vice President Biden in the debate and to assist him in winning the election,’ they wrote. ‘Based on Morell’s testimony, it is apparent that the Biden campaign played an active role in the origins of the public statement, which had the effect of helping to suppress the Hunter Biden story and preventing American citizens from making a fully informed decision during the 2020 presidential election.’
Three days after the letter from the former intelligence officials was made public, then-presidential candidate Joe Biden used the letter as a talking point in the final 2020 presidential debate to rebut criticisms made by then-President Trump.
In the following years, numerous media outlets confirmed the New York Post’s reporting that the laptop was authentic, and the laptop was used by the federal government as evidence in the recent gun crime trial against Biden, where he was convicted on all charges.
Fox News Digital recently reached out to each one of the former intel officials who signed on to the letter and most of the signatories declined to comment, while several doubled down on their involvement.
Additionally, emails from the infamous abandoned laptop that Blinken sought to discredit showed that Biden has friendly personal ties to Blinken and his wife, Evan Ryan, dating back over a decade, having scheduled meetings with him while he was on the board of Burisma and Blinken was the deputy secretary of state.
In an email on May 22, 2015, Hunter tried to schedule a meeting with Blinken, so he could get the deputy secretary of state’s ‘advice’ on some things. However, the meeting appeared to be rescheduled to July 2015 due to the death of Hunter’s brother, Beau, at the end of May 2015.
Biden’s assistant, Joan Mayer, would email Biden, months later, his weekly schedule on July 21, which showed a scheduled meeting with Blinken the following day.
’12:00-1:30pm- Lunch with Tony Blinken (State Department),’ Hunter’s schedule read. ‘Enter at main entrance (‘Diplomatic Entrance’), 22nd & C St, NW. Proceed to receptionist area where Kenny Matthews will be waiting to escort you to Tony’s office.’
In another email after the meeting, Blinken told Biden it was ‘great to see’ him and ‘catch up.’ He also joked to Biden about how a woman in his office thought Biden was ‘pleasant on the eyes.’
‘Tell your wife,’ Blinken joked.
Fox News Digital could not confirm what the meeting was about. The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Blinken previously denied having a role in the creation of the letter from former intel officials, and has stressed that he does not ‘do politics’ despite his decades of political donations and campaign positions. Between Blinken and his wife, they have donated approximately $70,000 to Democrats over the last few decades.
Blinken has also said the letter ‘wasn’t’ his idea, and said he ‘didn’t ask for it’ or ‘solicit it.’
Multiple profile pieces over the years said Blinken has advised Biden on more than just foreign policy in his decadeslong friendship with the president and serving as a confidant. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., President Biden’s re-election campaign co-chair, told CNN in 2021 that Blinken ‘has been a part of Joe’s evolution, learning, and changes as he has confronted challenge after challenge over decades’ and that he is ‘an irreplaceable part of Joe Biden’s inner core team.’
‘President Biden is personally close to both Tony Blinken and Evan Ryan and Tony has been an incredibly loyal, capable and effective adviser, staffer and personal friend of the sort that is rare in Washington,’ Coons added.
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report