Then–Vice President Joe Biden in 2015 urged the CIA not to distribute an intelligence report detailing Ukrainian officials’ concerns about his family’s ties to corrupt business dealings in the country, according to a newly declassified email and agency records. The CIA confirmed the report was withheld at Biden’s request.
Declassified by CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the records include a February 2016 email from a presidential daily brief briefer stating, “the VP would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated.” The intelligence, collected after Biden’s December 2015 visit to Kyiv, said Ukrainian officials were “bewildered” that he offered only a public speech on corruption and suspected a double standard in U.S. policy given his family’s alleged connections to corrupt practices.
At the time, Biden was leading U.S.-Ukraine policy under the Obama administration while his son Hunter held a lucrative board position at Burisma Holdings, then under investigation by Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin. In March 2016, Biden pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid — a move he later publicly recounted.
The withheld report warned against further distribution due to its sensitivity. It resurfaced during a CIA historical review and adds context to longstanding scrutiny of Biden’s role in Ukraine, which became central to President Trump’s first impeachment over his 2019 call pressing Kyiv to investigate the Bidens and Burisma.
Read the declassified CIA Report
