‘Double standards’: CIA files reveal Joe Biden's efforts to suppress Ukraine's complaints on corruption
Ukrainian officials expressed disappointment over Joe Biden's 2015 anti-corruption speech, citing US double standards due to his ties with Burisma Holdings Limited.
Ukrainian officials were reportedly “bewildered and disappointed” by then-Vice President Joe Biden's December 2015 visit to Kyiv, during which he condemned corruption as a “cancer.”
The reactions stemmed from concerns over the US's “double standard,” given Joe Biden's family connection to the corrupt energy company Burisma. This information comes from the newly declassified intelligence from the Obama-era, revealed on 7 October by CIA director John Ratcliffe, reported the New York Post.
In an unusual move, the report on Ukraine's discontent was suppressed at the request of Joe Biden's national security adviser, Colin Kahl, and was not included in the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), according to a senior CIA official.
Colin Kahl "would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated," wrote a correspondent identified only as “PDF Briefer” in an email to the CIA on 10 February 2016, reported the New York Post.
“Thanks for understanding.”
The “PDF Briefer” mentioned in the report was likely Michael Dempsey, the Deputy Director of National Intelligence, who provided daily intelligence briefings to President Barack Obama during that period.
Dempsey reported to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has been linked to the Russiagate scandal. Clapper is reportedly under investigation by a federal grand jury looking into the involvement of former Obama administration officials in creating the Trump-Russia collusion narrative, according to the New York Post.
The PDB, the classified product of all 18 US intelligence agencies, is meant to serve as an early warning to the commander-in-chief of nascent crises and looming problems across the globe.
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After Biden's visit, the report reveals that Ukrainian officials "privately mused" about the US media's scrutiny of the alleged ties between the Vice President's family and corrupt business practices in Ukraine. They saw this as evidence of a double standard within the US government when it came to addressing corruption and political power.
At the same time that Biden, now 82, was delivering his anti-corruption speech in the Ukrainian parliament, his son, Hunter Biden, was reportedly earning $1 million per year sitting on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma.
The report and email containing this information were recently uncovered during an "internal review of historical agency records and databases" initiated by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
(With inputs from New York Post)
- The CIA suppressed reports on Ukraine's corruption complaints during Biden's vice presidency.
- Ukrainian officials felt disillusioned by the U.S. government's double standards regarding corruption.
- Biden's family ties to Burisma raised questions about the credibility of his anti-corruption stance.