The "Twitter files", an exposé of internal communications at the social media platform, has reheated interest in Hunter Biden's laptop, a story that revealed potentially compromising correspondence between an adviser at Ukraine energy firm Burisma and President Joe Biden's son.
Following a New York Post exclusive report in 2020, social media networks initially made efforts to limit the spread of the story, including Twitter, which suppressed the article and briefly suspended the tabloid's account.
While the significance of the "Twitter files" is under debate, it has reignited examination of the reach that behind-the-scenes characters had in the proliferation of the early Hunter Biden reports, including the role of figures from the U.S. intelligence community.
The Claim
Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) stated in a Facebook post published on 15 December 2022, that "51 former 'intelligence' officials told us the Hunter Biden laptop was disinformation."
"That was false. Turns out, the real disinformation campaign was created by our own government and woke Twitter executives," he added.
The post has received more than 3,000 engagements since it was published.
The Facts
Newsweek recently examined the Hunter Biden laptop saga in detail to understand what new information the "Twitter files" have revealed.
Social media executives were warned in general terms of potential disinformation efforts in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, which took place only weeks after the laptop story was published.
The "Twitter files" have shown at least some of the various internal conversations surrounding the Hunter Biden exposé, as senior Twitter employees engaged regularly with FBI and security chiefs.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey criticized the decisions Twitter took after the story broke, tweeting "communications around our actions on the @nypost article was not great. And blocking URL sharing via tweet or DM with zero context as to why we're blocking: unacceptable."
The document Jim Jordan refers to is an open letter signed by 51 intelligence experts and directors about the Hunter Biden story.
The letter stated that these former intelligence officials, based on their past experience, had serious concerns that the laptop had the potential to be linked to Russian disinformation efforts.
But it also did not make a determination on if the reported contents of the laptop were genuine, and said they had no evidence to link Russia with the story.
"We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, are genuine or not, and that we do not have evidence of Russian involvement—just that our experience makes us deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case," the letter said.
The letter also stated that if the laptop reveal were part of a Russian disinformation effort it would be "consistent with Russian objectives...to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump."
This followed a separate Public Service Announcement published by the FBI on September 22, 2020, titled "Foreign Actors and Cybercriminals Likely to Spread Disinformation Regarding 2020 Election Results," which warned about a range of potential threats beyond the spread of "false information" on social media.
"Foreign actors and cybercriminals could create new websites, change existing websites, and create or share corresponding social media content to spread false information in an attempt to discredit the electoral process and undermine confidence in U.S. democratic institutions," the warning stated.
"Foreign actors and cybercriminals could exploit the time required to certify and announce elections' results by disseminating disinformation that includes reports of voter suppression, cyberattacks targeting election infrastructure, voter or ballot fraud, and other problems intended to convince the public of the elections' illegitimacy."
Although the letter does not outright say the claims about the laptop are disinformation (as one could infer from Jordan's Facebook post), there are a number of strongly-worded assertions within the letter that lead to that conclusion.
The letter begins by introducing the credibility and experience of its co-signatories before stating that their concern about how "the damage that foreign interference in our politics can do to our democracy" had led them to consider "that the arrival on the US political scene of emails purportedly belonging to Vice President Biden's son Hunter... has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Before reasoning the position in analytical detail, the letter adds: "If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this."
Again, although the letter does not conclude decisively that the laptop stories were part of a disinformation campaign, the weight of its argument, the inference that its conclusions may be "right" and the aforementioned reputation of its co-signatories, confidently indicated the view that the laptop was most likely a disinformation tool.
Despite stating in the final paragraph "we do not know whether these press reports are accurate" it nonetheless ends by saying: "It is high time that Russia stops interfering in our democracy."
Context is crucial here. While authentication efforts have since found that at least some of the emails and other content within the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden, at the time there was debate among public figures and media outlets as to its veracity (including, as Mediaite reports, right-leaning establishments). The letter was sent amid this, only a few days after the New York Post's first story was published.
In a 2020 pre-election debate with Donald Trump, Joe Biden cited the letter and said: "There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said this, what he's [Trump] is accusing me of, is a Russian plant."
A spokesman for Jim Jordan told Newsweek that "the 51 intelligence officials said the laptop [was] disinformation" and highlighted Joe Biden's comments.
The Ruling
Needs Context.
The letter co-signed by security officials following the publication of the early Hunter Biden laptop stories did not outright conclude that the laptop was disinformation, as Jim Jordan's Facebook post may suggest.
The letter does lean heavily towards that conclusion, but also makes clear that "we do not know if the emails...are genuine or not" and "we do not have evidence of Russian involvement".
However, the authority behind the letter, the strength of its convictions, and the context in which it was published, strongly suggested—and led to the conclusion by some—that the Hunter Biden laptop stories were part of a Russian disinformation ploy.
Additional verification efforts since the New York Post's first exposé in October 2020 have confirmed that at least some of the contents, including correspondence with a Burisma advisor, were authentic.
Correction 12/19/22 04:10 a.m. ET: This article was corrected to state that the 2020 election took places weeks "after" the laptop story was published, instead of "before."
FACT CHECK BY Newsweek's Fact Check team
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
