Jim Jordan throws Trump big assist hours before debate

Less than a day after a Fox News host warned viewers the CIA could meddle in the debate to give President Joe Biden a boost, the House Judiciary Committee appeared to try to do just that — by releasing a transcript of communication from a former official from the secretive agency.

Trump-ally and House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) on Thursday released eight transcripts from former intelligence officials involved in creating a letter that was signed by more than 50 agents. The letter, famously released in October 2020 ahead of a debate between then-President Donald Trump and Biden, led to headlines such as this from Politico: "Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say."

"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," the letter said at the time.

Fox News host Jesse Watters has seized on the issue, claiming on his show Wednesday night that the CIA has meddled in debates before — at least twice, he claims — and will likely do so again.

The timing of Jordan's release of the transcript of former deputy director Michael Morell didn't go unnoticed. Released mere hours before the debate, the transcript includes one particularly notable section.

In the transcript, the interviewer asks: "The statement says that we are concerned that suspicious — I think it says 'deeply suspicious' — that the Russians played some role in the emergence of these emails at a critical time during the election period. What was the intent of the statement?"

In response, Morell said the letter served two purposes.

"One intent was to share our concern with the American people that the Russians were playing on this issue; and, two, it was to help Vice President Biden," he said, later adding that he didn't draft the statement, but played a large role in organizing, drafting and redrafting it.

He later called it a "strange way" for the Russians to disseminate the information into the public domain, but didn't doubt the veracity of its contents.

Later Morell said that Biden was facing accusations from Trump that he had conducted U.S. policy toward Ukraine with his son's best interests in mind rather than the country.

"And I thought and I still believe that that to be an inaccurate charge," he said. "At this time, you know, there were several investigations, none of which got to that fundamental charge, none of which proved that fundamental charge. And, as somebody who worked at the most senior levels of the Obama administration, I knew that it was an impossibility for the Vice President to conduct foreign policy on his own. So I knew that charge to be false. It was a charge that continued to be made against the Vice President by President Trump, and that is one of the reasons why this letter was important to me: to give the Vice President something to push back on that charge."

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Jordan, who has dubbed the 51 officials "spies who lie," told the Daily Mail he plans to brief his pal Trump on how former intel officials who signed the letter were being paid by the CIA. He said he expects Trump will "use this in the debate," set to air Thursday at 9 p.m. Eastern Time in Atlanta.

"I talked to him just about every week ... he called me out of the blue the other day to say he was having dinner with a colleague of ours,' Jordan told the outlet. 'I'll probably talk to him at some point here this week about the latest report we just released on the 51 former Intel officials.'"

The House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on the Judiciary, and the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a joint interim staff report this week titled, “The Intelligence Community 51: How CIA Contractors Colluded with The Biden Campaign to Mislead American Voters.”

In releasing that report, Jordan called the 2020 letter a "rushed statement" and characterized it as a "political maneuver."

"Now with this interim report, we reveal how officials at the highest levels of the CIA were aware of the statement and CIA employees knew that several of the so-called former officials were on active contract with the CIA. The report underscores the risks posed by a weaponized federal government,” Jordan said in a statement.