CIA Director John Ratcliffe on Tuesday announced the release of newly declassified documents detailing how then-Vice President Joe Biden and his team sought to bury a 2016 intelligence assessment that painted a deeply unflattering picture of his diplomacy in Ukraine — and raised concerns about his family's business ties there.
"Today, I declassified CIA intelligence regarding Ukraine after determining it is in the public interest," Ratcliffe wrote Tuesday morning on X, linking to the now-public report.
The documents include emails and internal communications indicating that Biden's office intervened to stop the distribution of the assessment, which Ukrainian officials described as highlighting "bewilderment and disappointment" over his lack of substantive engagement during a 2015 trip to Kyiv.
RealClearInvestigations also reported Tuesday that Biden's visit — billed as a high-profile push against corruption — left Ukrainian leaders frustrated and skeptical, particularly as U.S. media reported on Hunter Biden's lucrative board position with Burisma Holdings, a gas company long accused of corruption.
One blunt assessment concluded that the situation "undermined the credibility" of Washington's anti-corruption message.
A Feb. 10, 2016, email released alongside the report shows an official in the Director of National Intelligence's office telling CIA briefers that Biden "would strongly prefer the report not be disseminated," citing conversations with the vice president and national security adviser Colin Kahl.
The following day, Biden spoke with then–Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and stressed the importance of anti-corruption reforms — without acknowledging the suppressed assessment.
House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky., called the revelations "more evidence of a corrupt pattern of behavior," accusing Biden of "using political power to suppress politically damaging intelligence." He pledged new investigative steps in light of the disclosures.
"🚨 @CIADirector Ratcliffe is leading the charge to restore trust and transparency at the @CIA," Comer wrote on X, sharing Ratcliffe's documents dump Tuesday morning.
The revelations come amid heightened scrutiny of Biden's past dealings in Ukraine — including his own admission that he pressured Kyiv to fire its top prosecutor while Hunter Biden sat on Burisma's board — and are expected to intensify Republican-led probes into alleged politicization of U.S. intelligence.
President Donald Trump was first impeached on his handling of Ukraine during his first administration and has since vowed accountability and transparency for what he called the malign work of the deep state to undermine him and stage a "government coup."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.