Former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe criticized former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for saying he does not regret signing the letter suggesting the Hunter Biden's laptop story was "Russian disinformation." Ratcliffe said, "everyone knows" Panetta and other former intelligence officials "made a mistake" with their declaration before the 2020 election. Ratcliffe said on "Fox & Friends," that the officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, were running a "political interference operation."
JOE BIDEN IS THE 'BIG LOSER' IN THE COLLAPSE OF HUNTER'S PLEA DEAL, SOME CRITICS SAY
JOHN RATCLIFFE: I appreciate Secretary Panetta's prior service to the country, but everyone knows that he did make a mistake. Everyone knows that he was wrong. Everyone knows that the 51 people that signed that, whether they intended to or not, and some of them clearly did. In the case of Mike Morrell, John Brennan, James Clapper and Antony Blinken, they ran a political interference operation. They intended to mislead the American people weeks before the election. And unfortunately for all of them, the last chapter of the story isn't written as Hunter's problems continue, and as Joe Biden gets embroiled within this. There's going to be greater focus on the fact that all of these things, all of these things that were related were on the laptop, have been verified, and that there was a fraud on the American people shortly before the election and that they all played an important role in that.
Panetta said this week on CNN that he has no regrets about signing the now-infamous open letter heavily suggesting the Hunter Biden laptop was Russian disinformation.
The former Obama and Clinton administration official was among the dozens of former intelligence officials sounding the alarm on Russia's interference in the 2020 presidential election after the New York Post published its bombshell reporting about then-candidate Joe Biden's son, shedding light on shady foreign business dealings.
After several news organizations authenticated the laptop's contents, CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins asked the former CIA director Monday night whether he wished he never signed the letter "given what we know now."
"No, not at all," Panetta told Collins. "I signed that letter for one reason, which was to make the American people aware that the Russians deliberately were engaged in a disinformation campaign in the United States and trying to impact on our election and trying to impact on our ability to have free and fair elections. That's why I signed that letter."
He continued, "And very frankly, I have seen no evidence to the contrary that Russia has not engaged in that kind of disinformation campaign.
"Right, but we just haven't seen evidence affirming that either," Collins added before wrapping up the interview.
The letter, which was parroted by much of the media, baselessly suggested the emails were hacked and could have been tampered with by the Kremlin in order to make its contents look incriminating.
Fox News Digitals Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
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