Ex-US Intel Chief: FBI Meddling With Biden Laptop Story's Circulation is 'Election Interference'

Facebook* CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently revealed that his social media platform slashed the spread of the Hunter Biden laptop story due to the FBI agents showing up at the company and warning that it was a "Russian propaganda" – something that was later declared untrue despite Democrats peddling a different narrative.

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has slammed the actions of the FBI directed at hushing the Hunter Biden laptop story on Facebook* as "election interference". In his interview with Fox's host Tucker Carlson, Ratcliffe said that in its internal discussions, the FBI, its chief Christopher Wray and the DoJ said they did not believe the claims that the story was a "Russian propaganda piece."

Back at the time, major Democrats, including Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff, tried to drown the story in "Russia propaganda" allegations after it popped up just weeks ahead of presidential election in 2020. This narrative was picked up by the mainstream media outlets, many of which changed their tune almost two years later, admitting the story was legit.

John Ratcliffe says that to his knowledge the FBI did not believe the story was planted by Russia back in 2020, when it was first broke by the New York Post, which released the contents of the laptop that raised questions about the integrity of then-presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son.

And yet, according to Facebook* CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the bureau asked the social media platform to hush it under the pretext of "Russian propaganda."

"To hear that, contrary to what [FBI Director Christopher Wray] was saying, and the official position of the FBI that agents were acting in contradiction to that in dealings with Facebook or telling – if whistleblowers are to be believed - FBI agents to suppress information about Hunter Biden's laptop and to amplify damaging information about then-President Donald Trump - that is entirely inconsistent with what we all knew," Ratcliffe said.

Ratcliffe, who held the post of the Intelligence Director in the days the story unfolded, said he even made an official statement at the time dismissing the allegations regarding Russia's involvement. Those statements drowned in Democrats' cries of Moscow allegedly trying to meddle in the US elections.

The ex-intelligence chief says he was shocked to hear that the FBI actually used the "Russian propaganda" claim to put the Hunter laptop story under wraps, at least on Facebook*. Ratcliffe stressed that "a lot of folks" misled the American voters that year with regards to the laptop story, and suggested that what the FBI did might be considered interference in domestic politics.

"Yeah, it is election interference. And the troubling part about this, is the FBI is the primary domestic authority for enforcing election security; making sure that people don't interfere with the American voters and American elections. And if they're engaged in election interference, then we've got a real problem," Ratcliffe said.

According to the latest poll, conducted by New Jersey-based Technometrica Institute of Policy and Politics, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe that if the laptop story was not silenced in media and social media, the election outcome might have been different in 2020.

Some 79% thought the "truthful" coverage of the story would have tipped the scales in the 2020 election and similar percentage say they believe the information on the laptop was authentic. Additionally, 81% of those interviewed believe US Attorney General Merrick Garland should appoint a special counsel, to investigate the trove of the documents found on the laptop and partially published since the story first broke in 2020.

Facebook Hushes Hunter Laptop Story at FBI's Request

Zuckerberg confessed in "The Joe Rogan Experience" podcast that the FBI agents visited the company after the laptop story broke and said it should be on "high alert" for a "dump [of] Russian propaganda." The CEO said the company had no reason to doubt the concerns of "a very professional law enforcement" and hence took the warning seriously.

He, however, defended the social media platform, noting that it did not silence the story completely, like Twitter did, and instead slashed its circulation.

The files discovered on the laptop of Hunter Biden shed light on the murky business dealings of the US president's son in Ukraine and China. One of the emails suggested that he organized an off-the-books meeting between his father and an employee at the Ukrainian company he was working for – Burisma – while Joe Biden was vice president. That contradicted latter's claims of never being involved in his son's business affairs.

A set of stories about Hunter's dealings in China also allege he held a stake in a joint venture with a Chinese energy company for his father. The stake was only referred to be held for "the Big Guy", but several media alleged it was the US president, while one of Hunter Biden's associate, Tony Bobulinski, publicly confirmed it was him.

Joe Biden himself never commented or confirmed on his son potentially holding the stake for him in the company tied to the Chinese government, with which Biden negotiated back in his days of vice presidency.

* Facebook's parent company Meta is banned in Russia as extremist