A newly released House report has disclosed that several former intelligence officials who signed the letter casting doubt on the authenticity of the Hunter Biden laptop archive were active contractors with the CIA at the time. This letter, which suggested the laptop story was Russian disinformation, was signed by 51 ex-intelligence officials during the 2020 presidential election.

National Review reports that at least four signatories—former deputy CIA director Michael Morell, former CIA senior Inspector General David Buckley, CIA official Jeremy Bash, and former National Security Agency official Richard Ledgett—were CIA contractors when they endorsed the letter. Some of these individuals also had access to CIA facilities, a privilege typically reserved for those actively employed by the agency.

“I also love that at least a few of the random signatories belong to individuals currently working here on contracts,” noted one CIA official in an internal email chain discussing the letter.

The CIA did not disclose the entire list of contractors to congressional investigators, citing security reasons. The report, produced by staffers on the Judiciary Committee, Weaponization Subcommittee, and the Intelligence Committee, was based on testimony and internal CIA emails.

“The infamous Hunter Biden statement had all the hallmarks of an intelligence community influence operation. But rather than carrying it out against our adversaries on foreign soil, this operation was directed at the American people and our democratic processes,” the report asserts.

Michael Morell testified before the House Judiciary Committee last year, admitting that the letter came about due to correspondence with Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential campaign. Joe Biden cited the letter during a 2020 presidential debate against former president Donald Trump, countering the New York Post’s reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop. The laptop emails reportedly showed Hunter Biden’s attempts to leverage his father’s position to secure lucrative roles with Ukrainian energy firm Burisma Holdings and Chinese conglomerate CEFC.

Senior CIA officials, including then-director Gina Haspel, were likely aware of the letter due to a review process Haspel implemented for submissions from current or former top officials. The CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) typically reviews publications by intelligence officials, and Haspel required the panel to flag such publications.

Andrew Makridis, then-CIA chief operating officer, testified that his office knew of the Hunter Biden laptop letter and would have informed either the director or deputy director. Makridis, a 37-year agency veteran, admitted he had never seen anything like the Hunter Biden statement during his career.

Morell played a key role in crafting the letter and urged the PCRB to expedite its processing. The PCRB acknowledged receiving Morell’s statement in less than 40 minutes, and a couple of hours later, Makridis’s assistant informed the PCRB it could notify Morell he was allowed to publish the statement, reflecting the rapid speed at which the letter was processed.

Both Morell and Makridis testified that it was inappropriate for active CIA contractors to involve themselves in the political process. It remains unclear if the PCRB considered the contractors’ active status when they submitted the Hunter Biden statement.

Morell testified that one of the letter’s purposes was to help Biden defeat Trump. Marc Polymeropoulos, another key signatory, was accused by a CIA official of potentially using classified information to assist the Biden campaign. In his talking points to the PCRB, Polymeropoulos claimed Fox News and Republicans were susceptible to Russian disinformation.

“This frustrates me. I don’t think it is helpful to the Agency in the long run. Sigh,” a CIA official commented in an internal email chain, linking to the infamous Politico article on the statement.

Makridis echoed these sentiments during his testimony, stating the letter was a political document, which is why he would not have signed it.

During Hunter Biden’s gun trial earlier this month, federal prosecutors introduced the physical laptop and data from it as evidence. FBI special agent Erica Jensen detailed how investigators verified the laptop data by cross-referencing the computer’s serial number with Hunter Biden’s iCloud backups. Her testimony closely mirrored that of IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley, who had previously described the process used to authenticate the laptop.