FBI director Christopher Wray refused to say Thursday whether the release of information from Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a “disinformation” campaign.

No evidence has emerged to support the claim—initially advanced by Democrats and former intelligence officials—that the release of documents found on Hunter Biden’s laptop was part of a Russian disinformation campaign to smear President Biden. But when pressed on this question during a House Intelligence Committee hearing Thursday, Wray repeatedly dodged, citing an ongoing Justice Department investigation.

“I want to be careful about, there is an ongoing investigation that is relevant to that, so I have to be careful of what I can share on that here.” Wray said.

[In this case, Wray’s reticence makes sense. The DoJ and FBI have been working on a criminal probe of Hunter Biden, based at least in part on evidence from the laptop. Neither entity should discuss that publicly until at least an indictment is issued or the case closed without charges. It’s unfair to defendants to openly discuss the quality of evidence before then. If the DoJ had remained that discreet over the last decade or so, we might not have had a lot of the public issues we’ve seen during that period. — Ed]