Declassified Documents Allege 2019 FBI Operation to Discredit Intelligence on Biden-Ukraine Corruption

WASHINGTON—Newly declassified documents released by the White House Transparency Task Force on Aug. 12 reveal a prior secret FBI operation to discredit intelligence reports from confidential informants related to corruption in Ukraine before the 2020 U.S. presidential election.

According to Director of National Intelligence documents, the FBI unofficially created a group, known as “Round River,” in December 2019 to analyze internal systems and gather “derogatory” information reported by confidential informants related to Joe Biden and corruption in Ukraine.

The operation involved reports regarding Burisma; Hunter Biden; Mykola Zlochevsky, the former Ukrainian minister of ecology; and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election; collectively known as the “Ukraine Narrative.”

Analysts had access to all reporting and inserted intelligence in the files in question, with orders to flag the confidential informants’ reports as “Russian disinformation.”

Members of Congress who received “Ukraine narrative” reports were briefed by analysts in an effort to discredit the information, according to the newly released files.

Declassified documents include direct quotes from reports gathered from confidential human sources.

“[Source] knows a Russian Intelligence Officer who told the [source] that Mykola Zlochevsky … is using his relationship with Hunter Biden to get closer to the Americans,” one report from December 2015 reads. “The [intelligence officer] referred to the relationship between Zlochevsky and Biden as a long-term operation/long penetration.”

Another report from February 2019 alleges that a scheme between Joe and Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, and Chris Heinz-Kerry helped bring CUB Energy, a Texas company, public through a reverse merger in Canada. The move benefits Mikhail Afeudkov and Zlochevsky, according to the report.

Zlochevsky, the subject of an Interpol investigation, allegedly paid $100 million to former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, using stock shares and guarantees of future gas profits from sales in the company.

“According to [a protected sub-source], two CIA officers took Zlochevsky into the office of Yuriy Lutsenko, who was the prosecutor general of Ukraine,” the report reads. “The CIA officers allegedly said Zlochevsky is protected by the U.S. and urged Lutsenko to stop the investigation on Zlochevsky and let him back into Ukraine.”

The flow of money between Ukrainian company Burisma Holdings and its various investors was the subject of another February 2019 report.

“Burisma Holdings owns 13 companies, which are used to pay dividends on investments through fake consulting contracts,” the report reads. “The contracts are paid to U.S. investors and funneled through Latvia and the energy sector of Ukraine. Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, have money invested into Burisma. Their investment was passed through a shell company in Latvia.”

FBI Director Kash Patel wrote a letter to the White House Transparency Task Force informing members that agents are compiling all relevant information within the agency. Tens of thousands of pages were identified, and preparations for a full release to Congress and the task force are underway.

“We share the concerns raised in the materials you transmitted suggesting the FBI’s then-Foreign Influence Task Force, embedded in the FBI Counterintelligence Division at Headquarters, may have inappropriately focused on a small subset of information gleaned from the Round River assessment,” Patel wrote.

According to the director, at least 53 confidential human sources’ identities were potentially compromised to foreign intelligence agencies in nations where individuals were held “under hostile control,” and at least 14 reported information about Joe Biden that analysts deemed “derogatory.”

“At my direction, this FBI will take the unprecedented step of providing you with the source reporting from all 53 sources so you can finally see the facts,” Patel wrote, noting that he immediately disbanded the foreign interference task force after taking office and that internal reviews continue.

“We remain concerned that defensive briefings to Congress may have been overly focused on just Biden and Ukraine rather than the balanced picture of all foreign threats.

“Although these alleged activities occurred during a different era within the Bureau, my team is firmly committed to identifying, investigating, and holding accountable all abuses. We are equally committed to ensuring that future counterintelligence operations remain focused exclusively on legitimate foreign threats and are never used to advance political narratives.”

A spreadsheet released in the document dump includes the names of individuals and businesses listed as targets or conduits of Russian disinformation.

Rudy Giuliani tops the list, followed by then-Attorney General William Barr, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, then-Associate Deputy Attorney General Richard Donoghue, former Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-N.C.), Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), Sen. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Tex.), and Mick Mulvaney as “conduits.”

President Joe Biden, George Soros, former Democratic Sen. John Kerry, Victoria Nuland, former President Barack Obama, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are among the first “targets” listed.

The Epoch Times reached out to the Biden family for comment but did not receive a reply by publication time.