McCarthy vows subpoenas for ex-intel chiefs who called Hunter Biden laptop story 'disinformation'
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy vowed to issue subpoenas to 51 former intelligence officials who derided the New York Post's story about materials found on Hunter Biden's laptop as "disinformation."
Speaking on Fox News's "One Nation" on Saturday, the California Republican said the GOP would hold those individuals accountable for allegedly lying to the American people. Following the publication of the Post's story, 51 former intelligence community officials signed a statement saying that the article had "all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation." The story was later confirmed and the laptop verified as authentic.
"Those 51 intel agents that signed a letter that said the Hunter Biden information was all wrong, was Russia collusion, many of them have a security clearance," McCarthy said. "We're going to bring them before a committee. I'm going to have them have a hearing​,​ bring them and subpoena them before a committee. Why did they sign it? Why did they lie to the American public?"
"Why did you use the reputation that America was able to give to you... but use it for a political purpose and lie to the American public?" he further queried.
McCarthy's promise follows the release of internal Twitter documents showing that the social media platform throttled the story's reach without a basis in the platform's existing policies, a move critics have alleged was politically motivated to prevent the release of damaging information on President Joe Biden from handing the 2020 presidential election to then-President Donald Trump.
CEO Elon Musk has made use of several alternative journalists to systematically release internal communications from the company to outline its previous censorship practices, many of which appear to have had political motivations.
McCarthy meanwhile may struggle to follow through on his vow to further examine the myriad efforts to stifle the Post article as he is currently struggling to secure enough votes to become Speaker of the House when his party assumes control of the lower chamber in January.