Biden’s Request to Suppress Ukrainian Intelligence Report Revealed in Declassified CIA Documents

In a significant revelation that sheds new light on the Biden family’s dealings with Ukraine, recently declassified CIA documents show that then-Vice President Joe Biden requested in 2015 that intelligence about Ukrainian officials’ concerns regarding his family’s business connections remain private. The documents, declassified by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, reveal that Biden explicitly asked that a report containing potentially damaging information “not be disseminated” beyond the intelligence agency – a request that was granted, effectively keeping the information from spreading to other government departments or the public. This unusual intervention, described by senior CIA officials as “extremely rare” and “inappropriate,” represents what Ratcliffe believes is an example of the “politicization of intelligence” that undermines transparency in government operations.

The declassified materials include a heavily redacted email from February 2016 with the subject line “RE: OVP query regarding draft [REDACTED],” sent to the CIA by a Presidential Daily Brief briefer. The email states: “Good morning, I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding.” The intelligence report in question contained information about Ukrainian government officials’ reactions to Biden’s visit to Kyiv in December 2015, particularly their “bewilderment and disappointment” at what they perceived as a superficial visit. More significantly, the report indicated that officials within Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s administration privately discussed American media scrutiny of the Biden family’s alleged ties to “corrupt business practices in Ukraine.” These Ukrainian officials reportedly viewed these connections as evidence of “a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power” – a particularly sensitive topic given Biden’s public stance against corruption in Ukraine.

The timing of this suppressed intelligence report adds important context to the larger story of Biden’s involvement with Ukraine. Just months after his December 2015 visit and this intelligence report, in March 2016, Biden successfully pressured Ukraine to remove Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, who had been investigating Burisma Holdings – the Ukrainian natural gas company where Hunter Biden held a lucrative board position. Biden later publicly boasted about this intervention at a 2018 Council on Foreign Relations event, recalling: “I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.'” This admission gained renewed attention during President Trump’s first impeachment, which centered on a call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to investigate the Bidens’ actions in Ukraine – a request that Democrats characterized as an abuse of power but that Trump defenders viewed as legitimate given the circumstances.

The newly declassified intelligence report carried strict handling instructions, emphasizing its “extreme sensitivity” and stating it “should be distributed only to the renamed recipients” with “no further distribution” authorized without approval. Any discussion of or reference to the information was “strictly prohibited” – unusual restrictions that were followed, as CIA officials confirmed the report “had not been disseminated” outside the agency following Biden’s request. This level of control over potentially politically damaging intelligence raises serious questions about the proper separation between intelligence functions and political interests, especially considering Biden’s highly visible anti-corruption campaign in Ukraine during the same period, where he publicly stated that Ukrainian officials must “remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities.”

The information comes to light after years of controversy surrounding the Biden family’s international business dealings, particularly in Ukraine. Hunter Biden’s role on Burisma’s board while his father directed U.S.-Ukraine policy has been a persistent subject of Republican investigations. More recently, the House of Representatives conducted an impeachment inquiry against President Biden, concluding that he had engaged in “impeachable conduct,” “abused his office,” and “defrauded the United States to enrich his family.” While Democrats dismissed these findings as politically motivated, the newly declassified documents provide contemporary intelligence community evidence that Ukrainian officials themselves perceived problematic connections between Biden family business interests and U.S. policy decisions – information that Biden specifically requested remain private.

According to the senior CIA official who briefed Fox News Digital on these documents, CIA Director Ratcliffe believes strongly in “maximum transparency” and intends to continue declassifying intelligence “when it serves the public’s interest.” While careful to protect sensitive sources and methods through redactions, Ratcliffe views this case as exemplifying the need to “eliminate” politicization of intelligence and maintain “zero tolerance” for such practices. The declassification of these documents represents an effort to provide Americans with more complete information about how intelligence may have been managed for political purposes – a practice that undermines public trust in government institutions and raises significant questions about accountability when high-ranking officials intervene to suppress information that might prove politically disadvantageous to themselves or their families.