Former CIA Director John Brennan snapped at a man who confronted him for signing the infamous letter in 2020 that claimed the bombshell Hunter Biden email scandal exposed by The Post had “all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.”
Brennan, 70, grew visibly incensed and angrily got in the face of the man who pressed about the letter, poking him on the chest repeatedly before backing off.
“You misrepresented that,” Brennan shouted at conservative national security consultant Thomas Speciale during the tense clash.
“We never said it was disinformation; we said it was Russian influence operations, which is what they do. There’s a big difference,” he added.
REUTERS
After Speciale pushed back, the ex-CIA boss waved his hand in frustration and vented, “I’m not going to waste my time with you.”
Speciale, who claimed the confrontation took place last Thursday, posted video of the fiery moment Saturday alongside text of the infamous “spies who lie” letter that Brennan signed.
Shortly after The Post’s bombshell October 2020 exposé of emails on Hunter’s “laptop from hell” — which illustrated how he leveraged his father’s vice presidency in his dealings with Ukrainian businessmen — 51 current and former intelligence officials signed a letter pushing back.
The 51 individuals, who clearly had no direct knowledge of the situation, leveraged their intelligence credentials to make the public skeptical of The Post’s reporting, weeks before the 2020 election.
Politico amplified the story with the headline, “Hunter Biden story is Russian disinfo, dozens of former intel officials say.”
After the conference on Thursday I confronted former CIA Director Brennan directly regarding his signing the 51 Intelligence Officers Memo knowing that the Hunter Biden laptop was real and not Russian disinformation. Watch his response. pic.twitter.com/blg86oBLRb
— Thomas A. Speciale II (@Speciale4VA) November 1, 2025
Several signatories have since distanced themselves from that headline.
“There are a number of factors that make us suspicious of Russian involvement. Such an operation would be consistent with Russian objectives, as outlined publicly and recently by the Intelligence Community, to create political chaos in the United States and to deepen political divisions here,” they wrote in the public letter.
After publishing the report, The Post was blocked by Twitter, which prevented users from sharing the story and even briefly blocked The Post from tweeting.
The story had been a massive development as it shed light on how Hunter used his father in business dealings and raised questions about former President Joe Biden’s attempts to pressure Ukrainian officials into firing Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
Shokin had publicly speculated that Biden pushed for his ouster because he was investigating Ukrainian natural gas giant Burisma, a firm that had Hunter on its board.
Biden denied that and claimed that he wanted Shokin gone because he wasn’t being aggressive enough on corruption cases.
