John Ratcliffe calls for ‘more thorough investigation’ into Hunter Biden letter after revelations about CIA employees

“Deeper investigations” are needed to resolve the infamous letter used to discredit the Hunter Biden laptop story weeks before the 2020 presidential election because crimes may have been committed, a senior Trump administration official said Sunday.

Former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe, along with former House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), spoke with Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News about the revelation last week that some of the former officials who signed the letter were on the CIA payroll at the time.

“The CIA is considered non-political and is barred from political activity under the Hatch Act and other restrictions,” he said. “What made this letter okay from the beginning, from one perspective, were all the allegations that these were former officials acting in a private capacity.”

Ratcliffe continued: “Now the CIA has admitted, and there is testimony, that at least some of these individuals were under contract to the CIA, which constitutes violations of the Hatch Act and potentially even more serious offenses under Title 18 of election interference.”

House investigators found that two of the 51 signatories – former CIA Deputy Director Michael Morell and former CIA Inspector General David Buckley – were actively working as contractors for the CIA at the time the statement was released.

The “revelation raises concerns that these officials may have abused their offices to speed up the approval of the declaration and may have earned taxpayer money in the process,” said a report by the panel on arming the federal government.

In response to the findings, a CIA spokesman stressed that the former officials “did not speak for” the agency. And the report noted that the Hatch Act’s policy restrictions do not apply to contractors in the same way as they do to CIA employees, but suggested that lawmakers should consider whether to extend the ban to contractors.

Ratcliffe said the House of Representatives has “done a good job here,” but added that the laptop controversy “really requires a more thorough investigation that the Biden administration is not going to do.” He further suggested that his former boss Donald Trump could initiate it if he wins a second term in November.

“What needs to happen here, Maria, is that when President Trump is sworn in, a new CIA director, a new CIA inspector general and a new attorney general for a Trump administration will need a more thorough investigation and possible criminal leads here,” he explained.

“And I would also like to say that regardless of how this all plays out, all former and current officials who were involved in the orchestration of this matter should be irrevocably and permanently stripped of all security clearances and have no ties to the intelligence community,” Ratcliffe said.

He added: “You know, Maria, we have what’s called a debarment list where we put companies and individuals who are defrauding the government on a list and say, ‘You’re bad actors, you can no longer be associated with or do business with the government.’ That’s what needs to happen with these officials so that this kind of political interference can’t happen anymore.”