Receipts for #17.
Exclusive: Russia-linked smear campaign against Hunter Biden began earlier than previously thought
*A former KGB agent gave disinformation about Hunter Biden to an aide for Mike Pompeo in May 2019.
*The agent also presented the same disinformation to Justice Department officials in January 2019.
*The presentation is the earliest known instance of a Russia-linked source pushing such allegations.
www.businessinsider.com
The Hunter Biden laptop and claims of Russian disinfo'
Complicating matters was that the source of the hard drive, Trump's personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, refused to share it with other news organizations, including The Washington Post and the New York Times. Few were willing to report information in the New York Post stories without their own due diligence, especially if Russia was once again seeking to meddle in the election.
A major question was the origin of the materials. The story that Hunter Biden turned over for repair a laptop filled with sensitive materials - and then never picked it up - seemed rather fantastic.
50 former senior intelligence officials, including five CIA chiefs, had signed a letter saying the release of the emails "has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation."
Note that the letter refers to a Russian "information operation" - not disinformation. Within the national security community, there's a difference.
"Information operations and warfare, also known as influence operations, includes the collection of tactical information about an adversary as well as the dissemination of propaganda in pursuit of a competitive advantage over an opponent," says the Rand Corp.
Disinformation, by contrast, is false information deliberately intended to mislead.
www.washingtonpost.com
