President Donald Trump pulled the security clearances of more than 50 national security officials who said Hunter Biden’s laptop had “all the classic hallmarks of a Russian information operation.”
A total of 51 former national security officials published a public letter in 2020 stating that although the laptop had “no evidence of Russian involvement,” it appeared to be a “Russian information operation.”
The letter came after the New York Post reported that it had emails showing Hunter Biden arranging for Joe Biden to meet with a top executive at the Ukrainian energy company Burisma months before pressuring Ukrainian officials to remove a prosecutor investigating the company.
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The list includes former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper Jr., former Central Intelligence Agency directors Michael Hayden, John Brennan, former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and former National Security Advisor John Bolton.
Fox Information Digital previously reported that federal Justice Department investigators knew Hunter Biden’s laptop was not tampered with and contained “reliable evidence.”
Republican lawmakers, including Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have previously suggested withdrawing security clearances from these officials.
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The order was one of more than 200 executive orders Trump approved on Inauguration Day, joining directives such as withdrawing the United States from the Paris Climate Agreement to which the United States initially signed under former President Barack Obama’s administration in 2015. .
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Trump previously withdrew the United States from the agreement during his first term in 2020.
Other executive orders Trump signed on day one include rescinding nearly 80 executive orders and memoranda issued during the Biden administration, freezing federal government regulations and hiring, preventing “government censorship” of free speech, and ordering all departments and agencies that address the cost. of living the crisis.
David Spector contributed to this report.