How the Hunter laptop bombshell could be a major moment during debate

Jim Jordan said he plans to brief Donald Trump on how ex-intel officials who signed on to the letter deeming the Hunter Biden laptop misinformation were being actively paid by the CIA. The Judiciary chairman told DailyMail.com exclusively that he speaks with the former president about once a week, and he expects the Hunter Biden laptop and the letter signed by 51 former officials to come up in Thursday night's debate.

'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 said. '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.' 'We anticipate he's going to use this in the debate,' Jordan said during the Tuesday interview.

Trump and President Joe Biden are set to square off in their first debate of the campaign hosted by CNN on Thursday at 9 p.m. ET in Atlanta. Jordan, along with Oversight Chairman James Comer, has taken the lead on the Joe Biden impeachment inquiry which has sought to tie Joe Biden to Hunter and James Biden's shady business deals.

The inquiry has not led to a full House impeachment vote but has resulted in the House referring Hunter and James to the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal prosecution. Jordan, who helped found the hardline Freedom Caucus, has long been a popular ally of former President Donald Trump. He's pushed back on the criminal cases against Trump from Congress and led the effort to 'defund' Trump prosecutors like special counsel Jack Smith, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg and Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis.

But that push was ignored by the House's chief Republican appropriators, who will write up the bill to fund the DOJ without any provisions to ban funding from prosecutors who go after former presidents. 'We should we should not be funding this operation,' Jordan said, noting that there will be amendments to add in the 'defund' language. But he seemed resigned to the fact that there was little Congress could do about the Trump prosecutions. 'The ultimate pushback is November 5,' he said.

Two days before the Trump sentencing set for July 11, Jordan also revealed to DailyMail.com first that he will be bringing in campaign finance expert Brad Smith to testify before Congress. The Trump legal team had wanted to bring Smith, a former Republican member of the Federal Election Commission, in as a witness in the hush money trial but Judge Juan Merchan narrowly limited the scope of what he could talk about and Trump's attorneys decided against bringing him in.

Regarding Hunter Biden's laptop, a new Judiciary report released this week found agents, including Michael Morell, were on active civilian contracts with the CIA and the letter had been approved by the CIA ahead of publication. Some rank-and-file CIA officers raised concerns about the political nature of the letter. The letter had said the laptop 'has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.' Morell was the one who organized the letter after a call from now-Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He said he did it to give Biden a 'talking point' in the lead-up to the 2020 election when Trump attacked him for the laptop that was later verified to be his son's.

'The signatories' decision to leverage their former intelligence community titles to promote a narrative about foreign election interference improperly embroiled the [CIA] in domestic politics,' the Judiciary report states saying it 'underscores the potential dangers of a politicized intelligence community.' The infamous memo signed by the pro-Biden officials in the lead up to the 2020 election claimed that damning pictures and messages found on Hunter Biden's laptop bore the earmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. That allowed Joe to discredit the laptop and its damning evidence during presidential debates, town halls and other media appearances prior to his election.

The laptop 'from [expletive]' was originally discovered at a Delaware tech repair shop. Later, the FBI retrieved the device and verified its authenticity. It contained a trove of damaging photos, text messages and emails that laid to bare Hunter Biden trying to profit off of his last name and his lewd behavior. The laptop was back in the spotlight during Hunter Biden's recent federal gun trial - where he was found guilty of three felonies . An FBI agent witness confirmed that the agency confirmed the authenticity of materials found on the device. DailyMail.com led reporting on the laptop since its discovery and had independently verified it in 2021. Several of the ex-intel officials doubled down on their 2020 memo earlier this month, saying it was a 'patriotic move' that they don't regret.

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