Newly declassified intelligence memos reveal that then–Vice President Joe Biden’s team intervened in February 2016 to block the CIA from distributing a report to policymakers about how senior Ukrainian officials viewed his son’s business dealings.

The move, described by a senior CIA official as “extremely rare and unusual,” came directly from Biden’s national security advisor, according to documents reviewed by Just the News.

“I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated,” Biden’s Presidential Daily Brief briefer told the CIA.

The report in question summarized Ukrainian officials’ private reactions to Biden’s December 2015 visit to Kyiv, during which he met with then–President Petro Poroshenko.

At the time, Biden was overseeing U.S. policy toward Ukraine following the Maidan Revolution and Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The CIA report shows Ukrainian officials were frustrated with Biden’s visit, saying he failed to engage in substantive discussions with Poroshenko and other leaders.

Those same officials “privately mused” about U.S. media attention on Hunter Biden’s business ties in the country.

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“These officials viewed the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power,” the intelligence summary stated.

The CIA memo noted that Ukrainian officials “expressed bewilderment and disappointment” over the visit, expecting the vice president to address policy matters that were instead avoided.

It was during that December 2015 trip that Biden pressured Poroshenko to dismiss his prosecutor general, Viktor Shokin, threatening to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee if the demand was not met.

🚨 USAID LOAN!: Joe Biden used his VP power to threaten withholding a $1 BILLION USAID Loan from Ukraine to get prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired.

Why?

Because Shokin was investigating Burisma, where Hunter Biden, Joe’s son, was on the board!

Notice how Biden stated that… pic.twitter.com/3OdYo9pmxQ

— Publius (@OcrazioCornPop) February 7, 2025

At the time, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian energy firm where Hunter Biden had joined the board in May 2014.

Internal correspondence shows that then–U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey Pyatt had warned Biden’s team that the U.S. viewed Burisma as corrupt.

Pyatt later told successor Marie Yovanovitch that Hunter Biden’s position “undercut the anti-corruption message the VP and we were advancing in Ukraine,” aligning with Ukrainian perceptions cited by the CIA.

Despite public claims that Shokin was corrupt, both the State Department and the European Union had assessed that his reform progress was sufficient to justify continuing financial support to Ukraine.

Just the News reported in 2023 that Biden “called an audible” aboard Air Force Two en route to Kyiv, deciding unilaterally to demand Shokin’s removal.

The newly released memos came to light after a CIA database review initiated in late 2024.

Officials who reviewed the report confirmed that it met dissemination standards at the time before Biden’s office intervened.

“Such information would have been useful to those dealing with U.S.-Ukraine policy,” one senior CIA official told Just the News, noting that the feedback represented the genuine views of high-ranking Ukrainian figures.

The same official emphasized that it was “extremely rare and unusual” for a political office outside the intelligence community to intervene in a dissemination decision.

He added that standard procedure leaves such judgments to the intelligence community, without outside political influence.

The documents do not clarify how Biden’s office became aware of the CIA report prior to its intervention.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe, confirmed by the Senate in January, said the agency’s current focus includes addressing prior instances of politicization.

“Mr. President, the CIA is being restructured at your direction to focus on our core mission and to eliminate the political – the well-documented politicization that has taken place in the intelligence community from bad actors in the past to focus on our core mission and to Make America Safe Again,” Ratcliffe said during an April Cabinet meeting.

According to a senior CIA official, Ratcliffe considered Biden’s 2016 intervention part of the politicization he has sought to address and authorized the release of the document to ensure transparency within the agency.

The disclosure marks one of several recent efforts by intelligence leadership to reveal internal findings from prior administrations.