“It is impossible to know for certain how events would have played out differently if these 51 intelligence community officials never sought to influence the 2020 election. All the Committees may do now is present the facts as known to inform legislative reforms to protect our democratic ideals and prevent future abuse of the intelligence community for partisan political benefit.” —House Committee on the Judiciary, Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, and Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

When Hunter Biden’s laptop was foisted upon the world, Big Tech and the intelligence community snapped into action. They censored the New York Post and the journalist who broke the story, Miranda DeVine, falsely insisting that the laptop and all of its contents were Russian election interference.

Then, 51 former intelligence officials signed a statement effectively denying that the laptop was real. In fact, they stated: “We want to emphasize that we do not know if the emails, provided to the New York Post by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani, 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. If we are right, this is Russia trying to influence how Americans vote in this election, and we believe strongly that Americans need to be aware of this.”

Then-candidate Joe Biden immediately backed the play, and low-info voters accepted the lie hook, line, and sinker.

The laptop has since been proven to be 100% real — it was even submitted by the government as evidence against Hunter Biden in his felony gun case — and a new report from several House of Representatives committees reveals that those who signed this statement knew that the laptop was indeed real. One of the signers, former CIA chief Mike Morell, admitted that he and coauthor Marc Polymeropoulos concocted the lie to give Biden a talking point before his final debate before the 2020 election.

Even at the time, those within the CIA who were aware of the veracity of Hunter Biden’s laptop expressed their disappointment that this letter had been made public. One stated, “This frustrates me. I don’t think it is helpful to the Agency in the long run. Sigh.”

This is an understatement. This blatant lie to the American public to protect a Democrat presidential candidate right before an election is election interference — in fact, it was a coup against the sitting president — not to mention a stain on the CIA. This agency used to manipulate other countries’ elections, and now it has done it to our own country. It’s a disgrace.

That disgrace isn’t done, though.

Of those 51 signers, some were active CIA contractors. This is significant because it means they exploited a loophole in the Hatch Act that prohibits the CIA from engaging in campaign activity. The House committees’ next step is asking Congress to consider adding active CIA contractors to the Hatch Act to forestall such duplicity in future elections.

As the report notes, the damage done by these intelligence officials’ election interference cannot be known. All we can hope for is that Congress prevents such cheating in the future.