In an extreme departure from normal practice, the report on Ukrainian displeasure was suppressed at the request of Biden’s then-national security adviser, Dr. Colin Kahl, and did not appear in the Presidential Daily Brief (PDB), according to a senior CIA official who briefed journalists this week.
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 February 10, 2016.
“Thanks for understanding.”
“PDF Briefer” was likely Deputy Director of National Intelligence Michael Dempsey, who provided an intelligence briefing to President Barack Obama every morning at that time. Dempsey reported to then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, who has been implicated in the Russiagate scandal to sabotage Donald Trump’s first presidential term. Clapper is reportedly under investigation by a federal grand jury examining the role of former Obama administration officials in concocting the Trump-Russia collusion narrative.
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.
“This was information of intelligence value that came into the possession of CIA in in late 2015,” said the senior CIA official.
“Normally … this intelligence report would be disseminated to individuals with an appropriate clearance and ‘need to know’ within the US government.
“However, in February 2016, the Vice President’s national security adviser told his intelligence briefer that he would strongly prefer the report not be disseminated. So the report never saw the light of day. “
The report and email were recently discovered during an “internal review of historical agency records and databases” ordered by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.
“As of mid-December 2015,” the eight-page report says, “officials within the administration of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed bewilderment and disappointment at the 7-8 December 2015 visit of the Vice President of the United States to Kiev, Ukraine …
“These officials assessed that the U.S. Vice President had come to Kiev almost exclusively to give a generic public speech and had not had any intention of discussing substantive matters with Poroshenko or other officials within the Ukrainian government.”
After Biden left, the report goes on, the Ukrainian officials “privately mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine [which they viewed] as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.”
At the same time Biden, now 82, delivered his anti-corruption screed in the Ukrainian parliament, his son Hunter was receiving $1 million a year to sit on the board of Burisma.
After Biden left, the report goes on, the Ukrainian officials “privately mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine [which they viewed] as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.”
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A month before Biden’s visit, his fifth since the February 2014 Maidan revolution toppled Moscow-aligned Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, a Burisma executive emailed Hunter a list of “deliverables” in return for his board compensation.
The demands included getting high-ranking US officials to put pressure on the Ukrainian government in support of Burisma owner Mykola Zlochevsky, who was then under investigation for corruption by Kyiv’s Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.
“The ultimate purpose [is] to close down .. any cases/pursuits against Zlochevsky in Ukraine,” said Vadym Pozharskyi’s November 2015 email, which appears in Hunter’s abandoned laptop.