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    2023-03-01 JDJ MT To IC Officers Follow-Up - Slick

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    2023-03-01 JDJ MT To IC Officers Follow-Up - Slick

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    Henry Rodgers
    30K views6 pages

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    2023-03-01 JDJ MT to IC Officers Follow-up - Slick

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    2023-03-01 JDJ MT To IC Officers Follow-Up - Slick

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    Henry Rodgers

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    of 6

    March 1, 2023

    Mr. Stephen Slick


    via e-mail

    Dear Mr. Slick:

    The Committee on the Judiciary and the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence are
    conducting oversight of federal law-enforcement and intelligence matters within our respective
    jurisdictions. The Judiciary Committee made a prior request to you for documents and
    information about the public statement you signed in October 2020 that falsely implied the New
    York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden was the product of Russian disinformation. This
    request, to include a request for a transcribed interview before the Committees, remains
    outstanding. These documents and your testimony are necessary to further our oversight. As we
    begin the 118th Congress, we write again to reiterate our outstanding request and ask that you
    immediately comply in full.

    You have been on notice about our oversight request—and aware the request is
    outstanding—for months. For your convenience, we have attached the letter from the Judiciary
    Committee dated April 6, 2022.1 To date, you have not complied with this request. Accordingly,
    we reiterate our requests and ask that you comply promptly.

    Please contact Judiciary Committee staff at (202) 225-6906 to schedule your interview
    and arrange for the production of the outstanding material. If you are represented by private
    counsel, please ask your attorney to respond promptly to the Committee on your behalf.

    Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter.

    Sincerely,

    Jim Jordan Michael R. Turner


    Chairman Chairman
    Committee on the Judiciary Permanent Select Committee on
    Intelligence

    cc: The Honorable Jerrold L. Nadler, Ranking Member, Committee on the Judiciary
    The Honorable Jim Himes, Ranking Member, Permanent Select Committee on
    Intelligence

    Enclosure
    1
    Letter from Reps. Jim Jordan, et al., H. Comm. on the Judiciary, to 51 IC Officials (Apr. 6, 2022).
    April 6, 2022

    Mr. Stephen Slick


    via e-mail

    Dear Mr. Slick:

    On October 14, 2020, the New York Post published a report detailing how Hunter Biden
    used the position and influence of his father, now-President Joe Biden, for personal gain with the
    apparent awareness of President Biden.1 This article raised doubts about President Biden’s
    earlier denial of ever speaking to his son about his international business dealings.2 The Post
    reported on an email in which a Ukrainian businessman urged Hunter Biden to “use [his]
    influence to convey a message / signal, etc. to stop what we consider to be politically motivated
    actions.”3 In another email, the same businessman thanked Hunter Biden for arranging a meeting
    with his father, calling it “an honor and pleasure.”4 The Post reported that these emails came
    from a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden that he had abandoned in a Delaware computer shop.5

    On October 19, 2020, you signed a public statement attempting to discredit the contents
    of the New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden.6 This statement emphasized the national
    security credentials of you and the other signatories, implying that the assertions and conclusions
    in the statement were grounded in information unavailable to other Americans. Referencing this
    unique experience, you wrote:

    It is for all these reasons that we write to say that the arrival on the
    US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President
    Biden’s son Hunter, much of it related to his time serving on the
    Board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, has all the classic
    earmarks of a Russian information operation.7

    1
    Emma-Jo Morris & Gabrielle Fonrouge, Smoking-gun email reveals how Hunter Biden introduced Ukrainian
    businessman to VP dad, N.Y. Post, Oct. 14, 2020.
    2
    E.g. Nick Givas, Joe Biden again denies speaking to son about Ukrainian business dealings, Fox News, Oct. 10,
    2019.
    3
    Morris & Fonrouge, supra note 1.
    4
    Id.
    5
    Id.
    6
    Jim Clapper et al., Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails (Oct. 19, 2020).
    7
    Id.
    Mr. Stephen Slick
    April 6, 2022
    Page 2

    Although this statement acknowledged that you had seen no actual “evidence” of Russian
    involvement with respect to the publication of Hunter Biden’s emails, you nonetheless conveyed
    a “deep[] suspicio[n] that the Russian government played a significant role in the case.”8 Later in
    the statement, you went further to state a “view”—not merely a suspicion anymore—“that the
    Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue . . . .”9

    Your public statement served as a basis for Democrat operatives to try to delegitimize the
    scandalous allegations about Hunter Biden and the Biden family. On the same day as your
    statement, Politico published a story about the statement, with the conclusive headline, “Hunter
    Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”10 Departing from the
    statement’s careful wording, the Politico story quoted one signatory to the letter as being
    confident that “once again the Russians are interfering” in our elections.11 Fifteen minutes after
    Politico published its story, Jen Psaki, who now serves as Press Secretary to the President,
    tweeted a link to the Politico story.12 The Biden campaign repeatedly cited your statement to
    dismiss the allegations against Hunter Biden.13 During the final presidential debate, Vice
    President Biden also dismissed concerns about Hunter Biden’s international business dealings as
    part of a “Russian plan.”14

    Your public statement was consistent with a broader effort to minimize and censor the
    New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden and the Biden family. National news
    organizations called the allegations about Hunter Biden “dubious” and a “non-scandal”; CBS
    News reporter Leslie Stahl said the allegations “can’t be verified”; and NPR called it a “waste
    . . . of time” and a “pure distraction.”15 Separately, Twitter and Facebook restricted access to the
    New York Post’s reporting about Hunter Biden, with Twitter locking the Post’s account and
    Facebook deferring to a so-called independent fact-check that never occurred.16 These efforts
    likely affected public awareness of the serious allegations surrounding the Biden family in the
    crucial weeks before the 2020 election.

    We now know from subsequent reporting that the New York Post’s article about Hunter
    Biden was not, as you and your co-signatories alleged, part of a “Russian information

    8
    Id.
    9
    Id.
    10
    Natasha Bertrand, Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say, Politico, Oct. 19,
    2020.
    11
    Id.
    12
    Tweet by Jen Psaki, Twitter.com (Oct. 19, 2020, 10:45 p.m.), https://twitter.com/jrpsaki/status/
    1318382779659411458.
    13
    E.g. Houston Keene, Flashback: Biden officials pushed angle that Hunter laptop was ‘Russian disinfo,’ Fox
    News, Mar. 17, 2022.
    14
    Deirdre Shesgreen, “Nothing was unethical”: Joe Biden defends Hunter Biden under pressure from Trump in
    debate, USA Today, Oct. 22, 2020.
    15
    Joe Concha, Media’s pre-election burial of Hunter Biden story proves dereliction of duty, The Hill, Dec. 11, 2020.
    16
    E.g. Elizabeth Dwoskin, Facebook and Twitter take unusual steps to limit spread of New York Post story, Wash.
    Post, Oct. 15, 2020.
    Mr. Stephen Slick
    April 6, 2022
    Page 3

    operation.”17 This belated verification of the Post’s reporting raises fresh questions about the
    public statement you signed in October 2020. At best, the public statement was a reckless
    attempt by you and your co-signatories to erroneously opine about purported election
    interference. At worse—and more likely—the public statement was a deliberate and coordinated
    effort to mislead the American people about information relevant to the 2020 presidential
    election by invoking your national security experience to falsely suggest that the allegations
    about Hunter Biden were not based in fact.

    The concerted effort to suppress public dissemination of the serious allegations about
    Hunter Biden and the Biden family, as first reported in October 2020 by the New York Post, was
    a grave disservice to American citizens’ informed participation in our democracy. We are
    investigating the role that the public statement played in this effort. Accordingly, please provide
    the following material:

    1. Identify all people with whom you communicated about the inception, drafting, editing,
    signing, publishing, or promotion of the “Public Statement on the Hunter Biden Emails”
    dated October 19, 2020; and

    2. Produce all documents and communications referring or relating to the “Public Statement
    on the Hunter Biden Emails” dated October 19, 2020.

    Please produce this material as soon as possible but no later than 5:00 p.m. on April 20,
    2022. In addition, we request that you take all reasonable steps to preserve records that may be
    potentially responsive to this inquiry.

    Thank you for your attention to this matter.

    Sincerely,

    Jim Jordan Steve Chabot


    Ranking Member Member of Congress

    Louie Gohmert Darrell Issa


    Member of Congress Ranking Member
    Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual
    Property, and the Internet

    17
    E.g. Katie Brenner et al., Hunter Biden paid tax bill, but broad federal investigation continues, N.Y. Times, Mar.
    16, 2022; Matt Viser et al., Inside Hunter Biden’s multimillion-dollar deals with a Chinese energy company, Wash.
    Post, Mar. 30, 2022.
    Mr. Stephen Slick
    April 6, 2022
    Page 4

    Ken Buck Matt Gaetz


    Ranking Member Member of Congress
    Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial
    and Administrative Law

    Mike Johnson Andy Biggs


    Ranking Member Ranking Member
    Subcommittee on the Constitution, Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism
    Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and Homeland Security

    Tom McClintock W. Gregory Steube


    Ranking Member Member of Congress
    Subcommittee on Immigration
    and Citizenship

    Tom Tiffany Thomas Massie


    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    Chip Roy Dan Bishop


    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    Michelle Fischbach Victoria Spartz


    Member of Congress Member of Congress
    Mr. Stephen Slick
    April 6, 2022
    Page 5

    Scott Fitzgerald Cliff Bentz


    Member of Congress Member of Congress

    Burgess Owens
    Member of Congress

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