Politico reports: "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say"

Fool me once ....

Here are excerpts from the letter.

Many of us worked for presidents of both political parties.

Also known as The Swamp. 

We are all also individuals who see Russia as one of our nation’s primary adversaries. 

After, that is, we got out disinformation orders to smear Donald Trump as "Putin's puppet." Reagan was a cowboy who embarrased us all by calling Soviet Union an "evil empire," naturally.

Some of us [know] Russian behavior intimately.

Wink, wink.

We write to say 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. 

We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails ... 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.

CYA

There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement.

OK, what are they?

Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community --

Some of the unindicted co-conspirators who brought us the Trump-Russia hoax

to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here

I was just saying how stable and united the country was before the Hunter story.

but also to undermine the candidacy of former Vice President Biden

> spills coffee <

and thereby help the candidacy of President Trump.

> hair on fire amid screams of "Oh, no, not again!!!!!!!"

Such an operation would be consistent with some of the key methods Russia has used in its now multi-year operation to interfere in our democracy – the hacking

Crowdstrike, call your office ... b/c no one else will.

... and the dumping of accurate information or the distribution of inaccurate or misinformation. Russia did both of these during the 2016 presidential election –

Sayeth Crowdstrike, w/o evidence, and the FBI ...

judgments shared by the US Intelligence Community, the investigation into Russian activities by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and the entirety (all Republicans and Democrats) on the current Senate Intelligence Committee.

This is how Big Lies become entrenched by "investigations" and "Committees" and "the entirety" Republicans and Democrats. 

The Russians, according to media reports and cybersecurity experts, targeted Burisma late last year for cyber collection and gained access to its emails. And Ukrainian politician and businessman Adriy Derkach, identified and sanctioned by the US Treasury Department for being a 10-year Russian agent interfering in the 2020 election, passed purported materials on Burisma and Hunter Biden to Giuliani.  

Laptop repair shop story anyone? Then again, what if ... this Derkach boychik were sent by Kremlin-IC allies in a double whammy operation to dirty-up Giuliani so that the widely discredited -- no, criminal -- IC would actually get it right, for once?

Our view that the Russians are involved in the Hunter Biden email issue is consistent with two other significant data points as well. According to the Washington Post,

No, not that. Not that. No. Anything but that.

citng four sources,

Not 400 sources?

“U.S. intelligence agencies warned the White House last year that Giuliani was the target of an influence operation by Russian intelligence.” In addition, media reports say that the FBI has now opened an investigation into Russian involvement in this case.

The FBI? Don't make us laugh -- not that any of this is funny. Except the list of signatories.

Jim Clapper

Mike Hayden

Leon Panetta 

John Brennan

Etc. etc.