The Pentagon recently removed a host of elite and Ivy League schools from the War Department’s senior service college fellowship program, but its new list of professional military education schools includes a haven for signers of the infamous Hunter Biden laptop letter and is home to fired FBI deputy director Andrew McCabe.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth announced in late February that the Pentagon was canceling nearly one hundred Senior Service College fellowships at nearly two dozen institutions. These fellowships are not to be confused with ROTC programs. Among the proposed replacement institutions announced by Hegseth late last month was George Mason University — home to a center bearing the name of and led by signers of the October 2020 laptop letter, home to an institute advised by laptop letter signatories, and featuring the Trump foe McCabe as a key professor.

The Michael V. Hayden Center for Intelligence, Policy, and International Security (found within George Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government) and the school’s National Security Institute or NSI (found within its Antonin Scalia Law School) both count a host of Hunter Biden laptop letter signatories and other Trump foes as top leaders and key advisors.

The cabal of "laptop deniers" still hold sway

The October 2020 laptop letter contributed to the baseless narrative that the Hunter Biden laptop stories were nothing but a product of Russian disinformation — a narrative happily seized upon by Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign and spread by some of the laptop letter signers.

Hegseth announced in early February that Harvard University’s “partisan faculty” holds a “negative bias towards military actions and discourages alternative viewpoints” and that “this bizarre and unacceptable bias reduces the return on investment for Service members attending Harvard.” A review of the Hayden Center’s BlueSky account also shows numerous posts just this year alone opposing Trump policies and his national security officials.

The memo from Hegseth late last month said that “Professional Military Education institutions are among our most sacred and essential means to restore and maintain the warrior ethos” and that “we will no longer invest in institutions that fail to sharpen our leaders' warfighting capabilities or that undermine the very values they are sworn to defend” as he said the Pentagon was canceling 93 fellowships at 22 institutions, including Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Georgetown, Brown, Columbia, MIT, and George Washington University.

Hegseth’s memo said the Pentagon was also “Realigning Senior Service College Fellowships” and listed 21 “Potential New Partner Institutions” — including George Mason. The Pentagon memo contended that “these institutions meet the following criteria: intellectual freedom, minimal relationships with adversaries, minimal public expressions in opposition of the Department, and Graduate-level National Security, International Affairs, and/or Public Policy Programs.”

But all the Hayden Center’s leaders and multiple members of the NSI’s advisory board are Hunter Biden laptop letter signatories — in addition to multiple additional officials tied to the Hayden Center and the NSI being well-known foes of Trump, his administration, and his Pentagon — and McCabe has been a thorn in Trump’s side since 2016.

The list of schools included in the memo is dynamic, and reflects a set of institutions that could host Senior Service College Fellowships, beginning in the 2026-27 academic year, a War Department official who declined to be named told Just the News. These Senior Service College Fellowships are designed to provide our military leaders with education, not indoctrination, preparing them to think critically, independently, and creatively, he said.

George Mason University and the Hayden Center did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Hayden Center run by Hunter Biden laptop letter signers

Michael Hayden, a former director of both the NSA and CIA, and one of the most prominent laptop letter signers, is a “distinguished visiting professor” at the Schar School and the founder of the Hayden Center at George Mason. A regular Trump critic, Hayden is also on the NSI advisory board.

Larry Pfeiffer, a former senior director of the White House Situation Room and a prominent signer of the laptop letter, is the director of the Hayden Center in charge of “overseeing its development, operations, and activities.” Pfeiffer is a regular critic of the Trump Administration, and Just the News previously reported that he continued to suggest just last year, without any evidence, that “the Russians played some role” in the incriminating laptop.

David Priess, a former CIA officer and daily intelligence briefer, also signed the laptop letter and is a senior fellow at the Hayden Center.

John Sipher, a former CIA senior operations officer, is another laptop letter signer and also a senior fellow at the Hayden Center. Sipher previously said he was proud to have played his part in influencing the 2020 election in favor of Biden — before backtracking and claiming he was being sarcastic.

The crew who injected into the American political bloodstream the idea that Trump was a Russian "agent"

Michael Morell, a former acting CIA director and the main author and organizer of the Hunter Biden laptop letter, had a long affiliation with the Hayden Center and is still listed as “the Hayden Center’s Distinguished Senior Fellow and Distinguished Visiting Professor at the Schar School.” The center describes Morell as “one of the leading national security professionals in the country.”

Just the News reported last year how Morell injected into the American political bloodstream the idea that Trump was an “agent” of Putin and Russia, a refrain that would be repeated over and over again by the Clinton campaign and legacy media in 2016. 

Morell said one of the reasons he crafted the letter was to help Joe Biden since he “wanted him to win the election” against Trump.

Morell previously said future Secretary of State Antony Blinken “triggered” him to craft it. He told House investigators that prior to his mid-October 2020 phone call with Blinken, he had no intention to write the Hunter Biden laptop letter, and testified “yes” and “absolutely” when asked if the call with Blinken, who was then a top advisor for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, was what “triggered that intent in you.”

Morell said it was his “guess” that Blinken called him to talk about the Hunter Biden laptop because the future Secretary of State wanted it “out” in public that “the Russians were somehow involved” in the saga.

The recruitment email that Morell had sent to prospective signatories made it clear that he and former CIA officer Marc Polymeropoulos “drafted the attached because we believed the Russians were involved in some way in the Hunter Biden email issue and because we think Trump will attack Biden on the issue at this week's debate, and we want to give the Vice President a talking point to use in response.”

Morell’s Intelligence Matters podcast was filmed or recorded live at the Hayden Center multiple times.

Prominent and lauded speakers at the Hayden Center have also included a number of other laptop letter signatories, including Obama CIA Director John Brennan and Obama DNI James Clapper. Joanna Mendez, another CIA alum and laptop letter signer, has also spoken at the Hayden Center.

Sen. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the former chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a strong Trump critic who read portions of the Steele Dossier on the floor of the House, has also been featured as a Hayden Center speaker.

George Mason’s National Security Institute advised by multiple laptop letter signatories

Leon Panetta, who served as both the CIA director and the secretary of defense under Obama, signed the Hunter Biden laptop letter and is on the NSI advisory board. Ronald Marks, a former senior CIA official and laptop letter signer, is listed as a visiting professor at the Schar School and as a fellow at the NSI.

Jeremy Bash, the former chief of staff to Panetta when he was CIA director and when he was secretary of defense under Obama, signed the laptop letter and is listed on the NSI advisory board.

Richard Ledgett, the former deputy director of the NSA under Obama, also signed the laptop letter and is on the advisory board of NSI. Mike Vickers, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence under Obama and another laptop letter signer, is also on the NSI advisory board.

A number of other Trump critics are also on the NSI advisory board. David Kris, a former assistant attorney general with the DOJ’s national security division during the Obama administration who spent much of Trump’s firm term defending the FBI’s decision-making, including the bureau’s use of British ex-spy Christopher Steele’s debunked dossier, is on the board.

Sue Gordon, the principal deputy director of national intelligence during part of Trump’s first term, who has repeatedly criticized Trump since then, is also on the board.

Frances Townsend, who is also on the NSI advisory board, signed onto a March 2016 letter by Republican national security officials who were “united in our opposition to a Donald Trump presidency” and, when Trump pulled Brennan’s security clearance in 2018, she said that “it looks politically motivated” and called it “deeply disturbing and very offensive.”

Benjamin Wittes — described by Politico in 2017 as “The Bard of the Deep State” — is a longtime Trump critic, a self-described friend of disgraced FBI Director James Comey and former FBI special agent Peter Strzok, and the editor-in-chief of Lawfare. He is on the NSI advisory board as well.

McCabe has held a top teaching job at George Mason for years

McCabe has also been a “distinguished visiting professor” at George Mason’s Schar School of Policy and Government since 2021.

“Distinguished Visiting Professor Andrew McCabe has a lifetime of service within the Department of Justice, both in the field and as an executive,” his school biography says, noting that “nearing the end of his tenure with the FBI, McCabe was promoted to deputy director in February of 2016, and served as acting director of the FBI after James Comey’s dismissal by President Trump.” The school does not note that he was fired.

McCabe appeared on George Mason’s Policy and Governance Perspectives podcast earlier this year, and he has been featured at multiple George Mason events. McCabe also did a live version of his UnJustified podcast — with co-host “Mueller She Wrote” Allison Gill — at the Hayden Center, and also did a live taping of his Jack: A Special Counsel Podcast touting the work of Jack Smith at the center.

Just the News reported last year on how declassified memos shined a new light on how the disgraced FBI official kept the Trump-Russia collusion hoax investigation alive during a critical period in the first half of 2017 before he got it handed off to a special counsel.

McCabe was a stalwart ally of since-fired FBI Director Comey, coordinated closely with since-fired FBI special agent Strzok on the launch and the conduct of the flawed and politicized Crossfire Hurricane investigation, and relied heavily upon disgraced FBI lawyer Lisa Page as his close confidante.

McCabe and Comey had pushed in December 2016 to include British ex-spy Christopher Steele's debunked dossier in the body of the 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on alleged Russian meddling, but they were thwarted by the NSA and CIA. The dossier was eventually included in an annex to the assessment.

By early 2017, McCabe and the FBI knew that the Steele dossier was baseless. The FBI had offered Steele an “incentive” in October 2016 of up to $1 million if he could prove the allegations in his discredited anti-Trump dossier, but the former MI6 agent was unable to back up his claims. An FBI spreadsheet from December 2016 showed nothing of any substance from the dossier could be verified. The FBI had unearthed nothing derogatory on Flynn. And an early 2017 interview of Steele’s main source — Igor Danchenko — undercut the dossier’s collusion claims.

Hayden Center’s posts show it is institutionally anti-Trump

The center in January shared a link to a Financial Times interview of former Obama CIA Director William Burns where Burns criticized Trump by saying that “imitating autocrats is not a winning formula.” The Hayden Center also promoted an NPR appearance by former deputy CIA director and laptop letter signer John McLaughlin and shared a podcast appearance by “Hayden Center friend” Morell.

The center in January also offered “congratulations to our former colleague Abigail Spanberger!” — a former CIA officer and Democrat — upon her inauguration as Virginia governor.

The Hayden Center also posted that month that “Gen Hayden, fmr CIA & NSA Director, joins fmr DNI Dennis Blair and 38 other generals and admirals in supporting Senator Mark Kelly’s lawsuit against Sec. of Defense Hegseth.” The center included an amicus brief filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

The school’s center also shared a Washington Post article where Hayden was quoted criticizing Trump DNI Tulsi Gabbard for being on the scene for an FBI search of an election facility in Fulton County, Georgia.

The Hayden Center posted that “Democratic leaders of Senate & House Intelligence Committees demand DNI Tulsi Gabbard appear before them to explain her involvement in the FBI raid on Georgia election offices.”

“Senator (and fmr CIA analyst & Hayden Center guest) Elissa Slotkin goes on offense,” the center posted in February, sharing an Associated Press article saying that “Slotkin rejects Justice Department request for interview on Democrats’ video about illegal orders.”

Center runs a PR campaign for Hayden and Clapper

The center also responded to a Washington Post article which had contended that the Office of the Director of National Intelligence should not exist by writing, “This is not an institutional problem. This is a problem of leadership at the ODNI & above. … ODNI has thrived when led by experienced intelligence leaders like Hayden & Clapper.”

The school’s center also shared a New York Times article stating that a “Grand Jury Rebuffs Justice Dept. Attempt to Indict 6 Democrats in Congress, including former CIA analyst and US Senator Elissa Slotkin.”

The Hayden Center also shared a Whistleblower Aid link claiming Gabbard was stonewalling about a whistleblower claim. The center also reposted a promotion of Pfeiffer’s appearance on the SpyTalk podcast which was focused on criticisms of Gabbard.

“Epstein’s experience may parallel Trump’s: not necessarily a controlled agent, but a figure whose incentives and behavior could nonetheless align with, and advance, Russia’s dirty objectives,” Sipher wrote in a story published by Tomorrow’s Affairs and titled “Birds of a Feather: Epstein, Trump, and Russian Intelligence” which was shared by the center.

The school’s center also reposted a video clip of Sen. Mark Warner, the Democratic Vice Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he said that “in the past, we’ve mostly seen foreign interference — my bigger fear now is domestic interference, some of that is potentially originating inside the administration.”

Just the News had reported in February that CIA Director John Ratcliffe rescinded or revised 19 intelligence reports the agency produced dating back to the Obama era because they were politically biased or used poor spy tradecraft.

The Hayden Center sought to dismiss this revelation: “Little detail offered as to what went ‘wrong.’ We surmise the examples provided were written in response to requirements levied by then-incumbent Administrations and met standard rigorous tradecraft standards. We doubt this action reinforces CIA analytic objectivity.”

“Hiding the truth,” was also the center’s response to Judge Aileen Cannon blocking the release of a volume of former special counsel Jack Smith’s report.

Just the News also previously reported on how the Steady State — a group of hundreds of former U.S. intelligence officials (including some who signed the laptop letter) — reemerged on the scene to attack Gabbard and FBI Director Kash Patel while handing out endorsements to Trump foes such as Spanberger and Eugene Vindman.

“Worth reading — from a group of concerned former intelligence officers, diplomats, and military officers,” the Hayden Center said when sharing a post from the Steady State which opposed the U.S. strikes in Iran.

The Hayden Center in March said the Justice Department was “wasting time and taxpayer dollars” in considering a possible prosecution of Brennan.

The center also shared a statement from the anti-Trump group National Security Leaders for America, with the group saying that “we are deeply concerned by the political and legal justification for initiating Operation Epic Fury and by the strategic, constitutional, and diplomatic consequences now unfolding.”

It remains to be seen whether George Mason will remain on the Pentagon's list of potential professional military education schools following these revelations.