Judicial Watch Sues CIA Over Pre-Election Letter Attacking Hunter Laptop Story

Records and communications of the Prepublication Classification Review Board, Central Intelligence Agency, including emails, email chains, email attachments, text messages, cables, voice recordings, correspondence, statements, letters, memoranda, reports, presentations, notes, or other form of record, regarding an October 19, 2020, email request to review and “clear” a letter involving the Hunter Biden laptop story potentially having Russian involvement or being a Russian disinformation plot.

The CIA has documents responsive to our requests and necessary to our oversight. On October 19, 2020, at 6:34 a.m., Morell submitted the statement to the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB), instructing it was “a rush job, as it needs to get out as soon as possible.” The PCRB staff responded at 7:11 a.m. that it had received the statement, and cleared it for publication at 12:44 p.m. on the same day.

Morell speculated that the quick turn-around from the PCRB was because “[t]hey are probably afraid I’m coming back” as CIA director. On May 9, 2023, the CIA produced to the Committees two emails: Morell’s email to the PCRB early on October 19, 2023, and the PCRB’s response at 12:44 p.m. However, the Committees have reason to believe additional documents remain in the possession of the CIA.

The Committees have received evidence that the CIA, or at least an employee of the CIA, may have helped to solicit signatories for the statement about Hunter Biden. According to former CIA employee David Cariens, he spoke with the PCRB in October 2020 regarding the review of his memoir and during that call a CIA employee “asked” him if he would sign the statement. As Cariens explained:

If accurate, this information raises fundamental concerns about the role of the CIA in helping to falsely discredit allegations about the Biden family in the weeks before the 2020 presidential election.

Q. Does what [Former CIA official David Cariens] described there, that interaction with the [Prepublication Classification Review Board], sound like a quid pro quo to you?

A. I can’t comment on this. This is—to me, this is something that the [Prepublication Classification Review Board] in my experience would never engage in something like that. They are just straightforward back and forth in terms of approval. The idea they would have a comment on any other thing that they were working on, that to me is not even close to what I’ve experienced with them.

Q. Does that concern you?

A. If it’s true, it would concern me, for sure. But I just—I have a hard time believing that occurred. If it did, that’s incredibly unprofessional.

In July, we sued the DOJ for records from the Office of the Attorney General and Office of the Deputy Attorney General regarding the Internal Revenue Service investigation of Hunter Biden.

Keeping with her history of poor ethical and moral fitness, a veteran congresswoman who has publicly encouraged violence against presidential cabinet members and among police protestors is proudly commemorating the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop and rap, music famous for glamorizing violence, misogyny, drugs and lawlessness. Celebrating the milestone, California Democrat Maxine Waters claims that Hip Hop is an international culture-shaping force with a growing role in politics. “When I was elected to Congress in 1991, many politicians, including Black politicians, were either distancing themselves from Hip Hop artists altogether or trying to censor rap music,” the lawmaker says in the tribute statement issued this month. “Coming from one of the epicenters of this creative creation, Los Angeles, California, I saw the value in the artistry early on. These young people were a sight to behold as they were making art out of themselves and their conditions.”

Waters has long celebrated Hip Hop, a predominantly African American brand well known for graphic lyrics involving urban violence and the abuse of women. Songs often include profanity, offensive descriptions of women, gun violence and some encourage defying or attacking police. Among the most famous hits are tunes that brag about street warfare, promiscuity and the use of illicit drugs. Others incite hatred or violence. Some of the most famous Hip Hop artists in the U.S. have made headlines for domestic violence and sexual assault, offenses that seem to be widely accepted in the industry. One renowned singer, known as XXXTentacion, was charged with aggravated battery and false imprisonment against his pregnant girlfriend. Another artist, known as Fabulous, was slapped with multiple felony domestic violence charges after punching his longtime girlfriend in the face and knocking out two of her teeth. Other rap stars have been embroiled in serious criminal behavior involving guns and drugs. One highly popular singer, known as Tekashi69, was convicted of nine federal crimes, including racketeering and drug charges. A popular online news publication proclaims in a story that Hip Hop rewards rappers for abusing women.

This has not stopped Waters from adorning the artists and their peculiar brand of music. “These are our children and they’ve invented a new art form to describe their pains, fears and frustrations with us as adults,” according to the legislator, who has been embroiled in a multitude of controversies and ethics scandals throughout her tenure in the House of Representatives. “Just because we don’t like the symbols they use or the way they look, we should not allow that to cause us to embark on a course of censorship.” When some members of Congress tried to crack down on Hip Hop music decades ago, Waters encouraged colleagues to listen closely to rap lyrics assuring that they would hear “profound” words that tell a story of pain. “Rap was criticizing the way America treated its poor,” the congresswoman told fellow lawmakers. “Rappers were singing about poverty, police abuse, incarceration and other facets of their conditions. As legislators, these were the issues we should have been focusing on, not censorship.”

Waters is a divisive figure that has long abused her power to enrich family members and even got a communist dictator to harbor a cop-murdering Black Panther fugitive still wanted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The scandal-plagued politician sank to a new low by publicly encouraging violence against Trump administration cabinet members as well as anti-police protestors in an attempt to intimidate the jury in the trial of Derek Chauvin. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and you create a crowd and you push back on them and you tell them they are not welcome anymore, anywhere,” Waters said at a summer rally in Los Angeles, referring to members of the Trump administration. Judicial Watch filed a House ethics complaint against Waters for inspiring violence against members of a presidential cabinet. During the Chauvin trial the congresswoman urged protestors to “get more confrontational” if the officer was not found guilty in the George Floyd case. “Well, we’ve got to stay on the street and we’ve got to get more active, we’ve got to get more confrontational,” Waters declared. “We’ve got to make sure that they know that we mean business.” Judicial Watch also filed a complaint against Waters for violating House ethics rules in the Chauvin case.