Ex-CIA agent who signed 'spies who lie' letter tried to hide Twitter job after Post cover
By Josh Christenson
Published Aug. 30, 2023 Updated Aug. 31, 2023, 3:16 p.m. ET
A former CIA agent who signed the October 2020 open letter that dismissed The Post's bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden’s laptop emails as Russian disinformation worked on policy enforcement at Twitter as recently as last year and did not disclose her role to Congress, new "Twitter Files" reporting shows.
Nada Bakos alerted her senior policy team — including now-former Twitter head of trust and safety Yoel Roth — that her photograph was one of 20 on The Post’s March 19, 2022, cover highlighting 51 former intelligence officials who cast doubt on the authenticity of the laptop, according to an email sent the same day and obtained by independent journalist Texas Lindsay.
"Hi All – I wanted to make you aware of the NYPost cover that I was 'featured' on related to the Oct 2020 story about Hunter Biden's emails when he was on the Board of the Ukrainian Gas company, Burisma and a letter signed by 100s of former IC officials," Bakos wrote in an email that listed her title as a senior policy domain specialist of site integrity.
A former CIA agent who signed a letter that dismissed The Post's bombshell reporting on Hunter Biden's laptop emails as Russian disinformation worked on policy enforcement at Twitter.
Nada Bakos alerted her senior policy team — including former head of trust and safety Yoel Roth — that she was on The Post’s "Spies Who Lie" March 19, 2022, cover story.
AFP via Getty Images
“(Twitter also banned the NYPost for the story at the time)," she added. "Given my Policy role (and currently doing enforcement) across CHA-O, I didn’t want this to come as a surprise. I don’t /haven’t publicly acknowledged working for Twitter and locked down my Linkedin.”
"I have no plans to respond/make a statement or acknowledge the piece," she told the team.
Shortly after, Bakos switched her LinkedIn account to private and locked her profile on Twitter, now known as X.
Shortly after, Bakos switched her LinkedIn account to private and locked her profile on Twitter, now known as X.
Getty Images for HBO
Bakos worked at the social media giant from September 2021 through November of last year. Since leaving the CIA in 2010 after a decade as an analyst, her resume includes PR work for Starbucks, private consulting and nearly four years as an adviser and fellow at the Philadelphia-based Foreign Policy Research Institute, which still lists her on its website as a senior fellow though her online resume says she left in January 2020.
Bakos is widely believed to be the inspiration for Jessica Chastain’s character Maya in the 2012 film "Zero Dark Thirty," but has denied the rumours, saying Chastain’s character “appears to be an amalgamation of women I knew and worked with” at the CIA.
Neither Bakos nor X immediately responded to a request for comment. After purchasing the social media company last year, billionaire Elon Musk purged top executives and dissolved the trust and safety team.
The Post's suppressed story revealed Hunter Biden introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a Ukrainian business partner.
AP
The ex-CIA counterterrorism analyst worked under former agency head Michael Morell, who helped author the now-infamous letter seeking to discredit laptop emails that showed Hunter Biden had introduced his father, then-Vice President Joe Biden, to a Ukrainian business partner, according to congressional testimony he gave earlier this year.
In April, the former CIA director told members of the House Judiciary Committee in private sworn testimony that he had been "triggered" to write the intelligence letter by then-Biden senior campaign official Antony Blinken, now secretary of state.
Bakos also helped draft the intelligence letter, but the email address she used with other former officials was redacted in communications forwarded to House lawmakers, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The ex-CIA counterterrorism analyst worked under former agency head Michael Morell, who helped author the now-infamous letter.
Patrick McMullan via Getty Images
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) has sent several letters to Bakos requesting further information and a transcribed interview about the drafting of the intelligence letter, but she has declined to respond.
Bakos has also written articles for the Washington Post and other outlets criticizing former President Donald Trump for firing FBI Director James Comey in May 2017 and arguing Trump’s tweets made him vulnerable to Russian intelligence operations.
Bakos also authored tweets hyping fears about Russian collusion during the 2016 election and expressing support for Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign, which are still available on an internet archive.
Morell, her former boss, is listed as a columnist for the Washington Post but has not published any articles since October 12, 2020 — two days before The Post’s first laptop report.
Full Story
The intelligence 'experts' who falsely discredited Hunter Biden's laptop - and still won't say sorry. |
