The FBI declined to directly comment on the (Hunt) letter's authenticity.
Why are you having trouble understanding that? We have nothing directly from the FBI on the letter. All we have is an unnamed source, reported by Earl Golz, that said that the FBI said some things.
I understand perfectly. On the one hand you want to use part of the quote in the article to somehow make the point that the FBI declined to comment directly (as if that means anything significant), while at the same time you want to dismiss the information in the article as coming from an unnamed source.
When you quote from the article, I can do the same.
The FBI said without the original letter it would be "almost impossible to certify whether it is genuine or not," the Justice Department source said.Why are you having trouble understanding that without an original copy it would be almost impossible to certify whether the document is genuine or not?
The latter, btw, is what all the handwriting experts I have spoken to over the years have all said.