Then-Vice President Joe Biden suppressed concerns from Ukrainian officials about his family’s corrupt business dealings in the country, newly declassified records show.
Released Tuesday by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the heavily redacted documents indicate U.S. intelligence officials squashed an intel report that revealed Ukrainian officials worried about Biden’s visit to the country in December 2015.
According to the records, these officials expressed “bewilderment” and “disappointment” at Biden’s Dec. 7-8, 2015, visit to Kyiv, and “assessed that the Vice President of the United States had come to Kiev almost exclusively to give a generic public speech.” They further opined that Biden “had no intention of discussing substantive matters with [then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko] or other officials within the Ukrainian government.”
The report goes on to note that Poroshenko administration officials “privately mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of [Biden’s] family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine.” These officials, the analysis summarized, “viewed the alleged ties of [Biden’s] family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.”
The “alleged ties” disclosed in the report are likely in reference to Hunter Biden’s role as a board member of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, a position which earned him more than $80,000 a month (despite his lack of expertise in the field). Recall that in a 2018 speech to the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden infamously bragged about withholding U.S. aid to Ukraine as a means of getting the prosecutor tasked with investigating Burisma fired.
“I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not
getting the money.’ Well, son of a b-tch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was
solid at the time,” Biden said.
But the aforementioned intel report documenting Ukrainian officials’ concerns about Biden’s 2015 visit “never” saw the light of day. A senior CIA official told Fox News, “Intelligence officials agreed that, at the time of collection, [the report] would have met the threshold [for dissemination], but based on the Office of the Vice President’s preference, the information was never shared outside of the CIA.”
On Feb. 10, 2016, an unnamed official within the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — identified only as “[Presidential Daily Brief] Briefer” — sent an email to unnamed CIA officials about the report. In apparent reference to Biden and his then-National Security Advisor Colin Kahl, the ODNI official explicitly wrote, “I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated.”
“Thanks for understanding,” the ODNI official added.
According to the New York Post, “‘PDF Briefer’ was likely Deputy Director of National Intelligence Michael Dempsey, who provided an intelligence briefing to President Barack Obama every morning at that time. Dempsey reported to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has been implicated in the Russiagate scandal to sabotage Donald Trump’s first presidential term.”
The latest bombshell is one of many to break in recent years documenting the Biden family’s corrupt, overseas business dealings.
Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist and a graduate of the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood