Former CIA Director John Brennan just got into a fiery face-off over a scandal that refuses to die: the Hunter Biden laptop saga.
This dust-up, involving conservative national security consultant Thomas Speciale, centers on a 2020 letter signed by Brennan and 50 other intelligence officials that cast doubt on The New York Post’s explosive report about Hunter Biden’s emails.
Let’s rewind to October 2020, when The Post dropped a bombshell story about emails from Hunter Biden’s laptop—dubbed by some as the “laptop from hell”—suggesting he used his father Joe Biden’s vice presidential clout in shady dealings with Ukrainian businessmen.
Weeks before the 2020 election, Brennan and 51 intelligence officials penned a public letter claiming the story bore “all the classic earmarks” of a Russian information operation, aiming to make the public question The Post’s reporting despite having no direct evidence.
Politico ran with a headline amplifying the narrative, declaring the Hunter Biden story as Russian disinformation, though some signatories have since backpedaled from that framing.
Big Tech didn’t help matters—Twitter blocked the story, stopping users from sharing it and even briefly silencing The Post’s own account, which only fueled suspicions of a coordinated effort to bury the report.
Fast forward to last Thursday, when Speciale confronted Brennan, now 70, about that infamous letter, and let’s just say the exchange wasn’t a friendly chat over coffee.
A video shared by Speciale on Saturday shows Brennan losing his cool, repeatedly poking Speciale in the chest before stepping back, clearly not thrilled to revisit this chapter.
“You misrepresented that,” Brennan shouted at Speciale, visibly frustrated by the line of questioning about the letter’s intent and impact.
“We never said it was disinformation; we said it was Russian influence operations, which is what they do. There’s a big difference,” Brennan insisted, trying to draw a fine line between outright dismissal and sowing doubt.
But let’s unpack that—saying something smells like a Russian plot without proof is a convenient way to dodge accountability while still smearing a story, especially one with real implications about influence peddling in high places.
The laptop saga isn’t just gossip; it raised serious questions about Joe Biden’s push to oust Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who was probing Burisma, a company tied to Hunter’s board position, while Joe claimed it was about Shokin’s lack of anti-corruption zeal.
Adding weight to the story, federal authorities later used material from Hunter’s laptop in prosecuting him on charges tied to illegally buying a firearm while battling drug addiction—hardly the stuff of mere “Russian influence.”
Yet, few of the 51 signatories—often dubbed the “spies who lie” as The Post’s memorable cover put it—have shown remorse for trying to discredit a report that’s since gained credibility, which only deepens public distrust in intelligence circles.
Meanwhile, Brennan remains a lightning rod for conservative criticism, with the House Judiciary Committee recently referring him to the Justice Department over allegedly false statements to Congress, though that’s a separate battle from this laptop mess.
