Former President Joe Biden in 2015 privately requested the CIA not distribute an internal report that flagged Ukrainian concerns over his family’s questionable business dealings in the region. Unsurprisingly, the CIA complied — and the report was buried.
The revelation comes from newly declassified documents obtained by Fox News Digital, thanks to CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who ordered the files reviewed and released. Ratcliffe characterized the suppression as a glaring case of the “politicization of intelligence.”
The CIA’s review unearthed a February 10, 2016, email that makes Biden’s intentions crystal clear. The message, marked “SECRET” (and later struck through), relayed Biden’s demand via his daily intelligence briefer:
“Good morning, I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding.”
That report, based on intelligence gathered in December 2015, detailed how officials inside the Ukrainian government perceived the Biden family’s ties to corrupt Ukrainian business ventures — specifically Hunter Biden’s highly paid position on the board of Burisma Holdings, the scandal-ridden energy company under investigation at the time.
According to the declassified document, Ukrainian officials were “bewildered and disappointed” by Biden’s December 2015 visit, during which they expected substantive discussion on Ukrainian leadership and corruption. Instead, Biden delivered a generic anti-corruption speech, while seemingly dodging any real engagement on personnel changes or policy — including matters related to Burisma.
The intelligence noted that Ukrainian officials privately mocked U.S. media for ignoring the glaring conflict of interest involving the Bidens, seeing it as “evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.”
This wasn’t just some speculative memo either. A senior CIA official confirmed that the intelligence was credible and met dissemination standards, but it was ultimately kept in-house at Biden’s request.
“It is extremely rare and inappropriate to go outside the intelligence community to request suppression of a report — particularly when the motive appears political,” the official said.
The timing of Biden’s request is telling. At the time, Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating Burisma — the same company where Hunter Biden was raking in tens of thousands of dollars per month. By March 2016, Biden had successfully pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid.
“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden later bragged during a Council on Foreign Relations appearance in 2018.
This chain of events — a buried intel report, financial pressure on Ukraine, and suppression of inconvenient facts — paints a damning picture. Yet ironically, it was President Donald Trump, not Biden, who was impeached in 2019 for daring to ask Ukraine to investigate these exact ties during a phone call with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Meanwhile, Hunter Biden was already under federal investigation for shady foreign financial dealings, an investigation that continues to evolve today.
The declassified intel carried a stark warning:
“Due to the extreme sensitivity, this report should be distributed only to the named recipients… Any references to this report in derived or finished intelligence should include this warning.”
Ratcliffe, a staunch advocate for transparency, told Fox News Digital he will continue declassifying intelligence in the public interest and to combat weaponization of U.S. intelligence agencies.
“We believe transparency is important. We will release information and avoid any future weaponization of the intelligence community,” a CIA official said.
