(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) The CIA is currently facing legal scrutiny as conservative group Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), concerning the alleged involvement of the federal agency in covering up the Hunter Biden laptop scandal amid the 2020 presidential election.
The lawsuit revolves around the CIA’s Prepublication Classification Review Board (PCRB) and its handling of a letter endorsed by 51 former intelligence officials, which wrongly labeled the laptop revelations as a “Russian disinformation campaign.”
In a press release on August 17, Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton torched what he called a “Deep State” for seeking to protect President Joe Biden.
“The Deep State CIA, it seems, engaged in election interference and a political operation against the American people to help Joe Biden and hurt Trump,“ Fitton said. “And now the CIA is ignoring FOIA law to cover up its role in the scandal, censoring and suppressing the Hunter Biden/Joe Biden laptop story just before the presidential election.”
This legal action comes after the CIA failed to respond to a FOIA request seeking documents and communications related to the PCRB’s involvement in the younger Biden’s laptop saga.
Judicial Watch asserts that the CIA received the noteworthy letter on October 19, 2020, just three days before the second presidential debate between then-President Donald Trump and presidential candidate Joe Biden.
Prominent House Republicans have also criticized the CIA. Jim Jordan, Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, and Michael R. Turner, Chair of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, expressed concerns about potentially withheld incriminating documents within the CIA.
According to information from Judicial Watch, Jordan and Turner conveyed these concerns in a letter addressed to CIA Director William Burns. “The Committees have reason to believe additional documents remain in the possession of the CIA,” Jordan and Turner said in the letter dated May 16, 2023.
These Republican lawmakers cited testimony from former CIA employee David Cariens, who alleged that the CIA might have been involved in procuring signatures for the aforementioned letter.
Cariens stated, “The person asked me if I would be willing to sign… I agreed to sign.” These allegations raise questions about the agency’s impartiality and transparency, particularly in the lead-up to a critical election.