Newly declassified intelligence records show then-Vice President Joe Biden in late 2015 allegedly intervened to suppress a CIA report that raised concerns about his family’s business ties in Ukraine, a revelation that Republicans say confirms a “massive cover-up” involving top intelligence officials and the former Obama administration.
The newly revealed documents, declassified Tuesday by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, allege that Biden personally sought to block the circulation of a 2016 CIA assessment describing how Ukrainian officials privately questioned Hunter Biden’s lucrative position at energy company Burisma Holdings. The report was shelved after a person identified in an email only as “PDF Briefer” allegedly told the agency the vice president “would strongly prefer” it not be disseminated on Feb. 10, 2016.
According to the unclassified report, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and senior members of his administration were “bewildered and disappointed” by Joe Biden’s December 2015 trip to Kyiv, saying they expected him to discuss personnel issues and anti-corruption policy. Instead, he delivered a broad public speech while declining to engage on substantive matters.
Privately, Ukrainian officials “mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine,” the CIA report said.
Hunter Biden joined Burisma’s board in 2014, while its owner, Mykola Zlochevsky, was under investigation for money laundering and corruption. The younger Biden’s role overlapped with his father’s position as then-President Barack Obama’s point man on Ukraine policy — a dual track that Kyiv officials described as evidence of a “double standard” within the U.S. government on corruption.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the buried CIA assessment and related evidence represent one of the most brazen instances of political interference ever uncovered.
“This was a huge cover-up,” Comer told Newsmax’s Rob Schmitt Tonight. “The cover-up may be worse than the crime. Thank goodness for John Ratcliffe. Thank goodness that he’s finally put the truth out there so the American people can see.”
Comer accused Joe Biden’s inner circle, with help from sympathetic intelligence figures, of concealing the report to preserve his image ahead of the 2020 election.
“Not only is the Biden family corrupt,” Comer said, “the government is corrupt.”
“Shame on the CIA for covering this up.”
The revelations dovetail with long-standing FBI materials cited by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), who has pressed the bureau to account for an informant file, known as an FD-1023, that alleged Burisma executives paid $5 million each to Joe and Hunter Biden to secure the firing of Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin.
According to that confidential source’s account, Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky told colleagues that Hunter Biden’s role was to “protect us, through his dad, from all kinds of problems,” and that “Hunter will take care of all those issues through his dad.” The source further claimed there were text messages, financial records, and recorded calls between Zlochevsky and the Bidens, including at least two that allegedly featured Joe Biden himself.
In 2018, Joe Biden publicly recounted his actions that led Ukraine to remove Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in aid. “I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” he told the Council on Foreign Relations. “Well, son of a b****. He got fired.”
“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours,”
If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a bitch. He got fired." pic.twitter.com/Buwoa0948y
— John Cullen
(@I_Am_JohnCullen) June 9, 2023
Attorney General Pam Bondi told senators Tuesday that the FBI is “working hard” to investigate records tied to the long-standing bribery allegations involving Joe and Hunter Biden.
“I know Director Patel is working hard on this with the members of the FBI,” Bondi said, marking the strongest public acknowledgment to date that the bureau is revisiting the FD-1023 materials cited by Grassley.
The renewed scrutiny comes over a year after former special counsel Robert Hur’s final report, which focused narrowly on then-President Joe Biden’s retention of classified documents from his time as vice president, drew criticism from Republicans for sidestepping potential overlaps between Joe Biden’s business dealings and his access to sensitive intelligence, despite calling into question his mental capacity.
Hur’s investigation concluded that Joe Biden had “willfully retained” classified materials about foreign policy in Ukraine and Afghanistan but declined to bring charges, citing his age and “poor memory.” The report described Joe Biden as an “elderly man with a poor memory,” and he opted not to press charges, saying he believed many jurors would “want to identify reasonable doubt.”
Mike Howell, executive director of the Oversight Project, called Hur a “cover-up artist” who only investigated where Joe Biden had classified information but “never in connection with his business practices.”
“President Trump should officially reject special counsel Hur’s recommendations from his report and order the DOJ to reopen a broad inquiry drawing on what Hur did and did not do to fill in the holes,” Howell said. “Because now we know there is way more evidence of Biden family corruption that still needs to be dealt with, but also from the perspective of what leakages and damages could have harmed our national security. It’s time to finish the job that Hur would never do.”
Still, former federal prosecutor Bill Shipley said the political appetite for any new inquiry could be subdued.
“It’s an oversight issue; it would have to be a congressional investigation for purposes of oversight,” Shipley told the Washington Examiner when asked what could be done about the CIA director’s release. But he noted there would be difficulties to renew something more substantial like a criminal investigation into the Bidens, citing the former president’s “unconditional” pardon that spans his tenure at Burisma.
FBI ‘WORKING HARD’ TO INVESTIGATE BIDEN BRIBERY EVIDENCE: BONDI
So far, there are no indications that the House Oversight Committee intends to schedule new hearings over corruption allegations against the Bidens after its impeachment report against the former president in August last year, a month after he bowed out of the 2024 election. The committee is finalizing a report regarding the former president’s reliance on an autopen.
The Washington Examiner contacted the CIA to inquire about additional declassifications, but did not receive a response.
