Former deputy director of National Intelligence (DNI) Cliff Sims on Wednesday stated he warned CNN reporter Natasha Bertrand that Hunter Biden’s laptop was not Russian disinformation before she wrote the infamous and now discredited Politico story which used “dozens of former intel officials” to push a false and misleading narrative about the origins of Hunter’s laptop.
Bertrand, a reporter for Politico at the time, approached then-deputy DNI Sims on October 19, 2020, regarding an article she was writing about 50 former information officials claiming Hunter’s laptop was Russian disinformation. Breitbart News’s Emma-Jo Morris had a few days earlier broken the “Laptop from Hell” story, which big tech censored, in the New York Post.
Sims told Bertrand before the publication of the Politico story that the “Laptop from Hell” was not Russian disinformation, citing then-Director of National Intelligence (DNI) John Ratcliffe. Despite Sims’ warning, Bertrand wrote the story anyway and gave the Democrats the headline they wanted, Sims stated.
