9 former national security chiefs who signed letter backing Harris also put names to an infamous 2020 letter

Nine high-ranking former national security and military officials who signed a letter Sunday endorsing Vice President Harris’ run for the Oval Office also signed a letter nearly four years ago dismissing Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop as Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 election, Fox News Digital found. 

A group called the National Security Leaders for America, which bills itself as a bipartisan group of former senior military and national security leaders, published a letter Sunday endorsing Harris for the White House. A total of 741 former high-ranking national security officials signed the letter. 

Fox News Digital pored through the list of signatories and found nine of the former national security chiefs who endorsed Harris also signed a letter in 2020 discounting Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation – before media outlets authenticated the laptop after the 2020 election and the FBI ultimately cited the laptop as legitimate in Hunter Biden’s criminal trial earlier this year. 

The signatories who signed both the 2020 letter and the endorsement of Harris include: former Director of National Intelligence Jim Clapper; former CIA Director Michael V. Hayden; former CIA Director Leon E. Panetta; former CIA Director John Brennan; former Acting CIA Director John E. McLaughlin; former CIA chief of staff Laurence M. Pfeiffer; former Department of Defense chief of staff Jeremy Bash; CIA chief of station John Sipher; and former National Intelligence Council Chair Gregory Frye Treverton. 

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Ahead of the 2020 election, the New York Post published a bombshell report on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. 

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Fifty-one former intelligence officials, however, soon after released a statement on Oct. 19, 2020, discounting the laptop as having “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation” in a bid to discredit the New York Post’s report at the time. 

The laptop came into public view after the first son left it at a Delaware repair shop ahead of the 2020 presidential election. 

President Biden hugs son Hunter during the Democratic National Convention, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

The former military chiefs’ 2020 letter played a key role in many media outlets turning their backs on reporting on the laptop as legitimate, as well as providing President Biden with political ammunition to downplay the laptop during his debate against former President Trump during the last election cycle. 

Liberal media outlets, however, changed their tune in 2022 after newspapers such as the Washington Post and New York Times authenticated thousands of his emails on the laptop. The laptop also re-emerged this year when the first son faced a criminal trial in Delaware over his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while he was reeling from a crack cocaine addiction. The trial, which found Hunter guilty on all counts, formally entered the laptop into evidence and was confirmed by the FBI as legitimate. 

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Former CIA Director John Brennan (Reuters/Joshua Roberts/File)

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The former chiefs’ 2020 letter made headlines again this year when a joint report released by three House panels alleged that active CIA contractors “coordinated” with the 2020 Biden campaign just weeks ahead of that year’s election “to discredit serious allegations about Biden family influence peddling” connected to Hunter’s laptop when the 51 former intelligence officials released a statement dismissing the laptop. 

President Biden and Vice President Harris (Win McNamee/Getty Images/File)

Fast-forward to Sunday and the 2024 election, the letter endorsing Harris and signed by hundreds of former national security leaders, including nine from the 2020 letter, lauded her as “prepared and strategic” while slamming  Trump as “impulsive and ill-informed.”

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“We are former public servants who swore an oath to the Constitution. Many of us risked our lives for it. We are retired generals, admirals, senior noncommissioned officers, ambassadors, and senior civilian national security leaders. We are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. We are loyal to the ideals of our nation—like freedom, democracy, and the rule of law—not to any one individual or party,” the letter published Sunday endorsing Harris reads.

Vice President Harris, Hunter Biden and President Biden (Getty Images)

“We do not agree on everything, but we all adhere to two fundamental principles. First, we believe America’s national security requires a serious and capable Commander-in-Chief. Second, we believe American democracy is invaluable. Each generation has a responsibility to defend it. That is why we, the undersigned, proudly endorse Kamala Harris to be the next President of the United States,” it added.

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National Security Leaders for America president Rear Admiral Michael Smith, USN (Ret.) defended the nine signatories in comment to Fox Digital on Sunday evening, arguing the 2020 letter was “well-reasoned but ultimately incorrect.” 

“One well-reasoned but ultimately incorrect assessment does not undermine a lifetime’s worth of public service. Their assertion that former President Trump is uncommitted to democracy and unprepared to be Commander-in-Chief is well-founded, as is their assessment of Vice President Harris as a strategic and knowledgeable leader.”