Overview

• Director John Ratcliffe declassified the heavily redacted documents and said the episode exemplifies politicization of intelligence.
• A February 10, 2016 email from a PDB briefer recorded that the vice president’s national security adviser would strongly prefer the report not be disseminated.
• A senior CIA official said the intelligence met dissemination standards at the time but was kept inside the agency based on the Office of the Vice President’s preference.
• The underlying report relayed that officials in President Petro Poroshenko’s administration were disappointed by Biden’s December 2015 visit and privately viewed the Biden family’s alleged ties as a U.S. double standard on corruption.
• The materials note strict handling restrictions and remain heavily redacted, and the report’s context includes Biden’s later push to remove Prosecutor Viktor Shokin as Hunter Biden served on Burisma’s board.