FBI Labeled Biden-Ukraine Allegations ‘Russian Disinformation’

The Federal Bureau of Investigation ran a counterintelligence operation appearing to run cover for Biden family Ukraine business dealings and other Democrats, labeling them victims of Russian disinformation, while labeling many prominent Republicans as “conduit(s)” of such disinformation.

Democrat figures like Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, George Soros, John Kerry, and Paul Pelosi were all labeled “target(s).” Republicans like Then-Attorney General Bill Barr, Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Then-Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, Then-Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas, and Then-acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney were considered “conduit(s).”

According to documents released by the White House Transparency Task Force on Wednesday, the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force – Russia (FITF-R) “unofficially formed a group of analysts who utilized internal systems to gather any/all derogatory information previously reported by confidential human sources (CHSs) on Joseph Biden corruption and other Ukraine related-topics (known as, the ‘Ukraine Narrative’) including, Burisma, Hunter Biden, Mykola Zlochevsky [founder of Burisma], Ukraine Interference in 2016 US Presidential election to red flag the reporting as Russian disinformation.”

The operation, known as “Round River,” started in December 2019 and went “up to and through the 2020 US presidential election,” according to one of the documents. An administration official said it may have gone into 2021 as well.

The documents include a declassified assessment of Round River from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) under Tulsi Gabbard, as well as a long list of “conduit(s)” and “target(s)” apparently involved on advancing Russian “disinformation,” or being victimized it.

The roughly 70 persons were all figures in the Ukraine-related impeachment of President Donald Trump during his first term, as well as the Biden-involved Ukraine scandal implicating President Joe Biden and his son Hunter in a corruption scheme involving the Ukrainian Burisma oil and gas company, upon which Hunter sat on the board.

According to the ODNI report, “the Round River team did not corroborate any of the allegations of the ‘Ukraine Narrative,’” which means that the FITF-R did not even look into whether the Ukraine narrative was true, whether Hunter Biden was getting money from Burisma, or if there was corruption involving Burisma and the State Department, the administration official said.

The administration official noted that at the same time Round River was going on was the “same time frame that those 51 intelligence experts write the famous letter about the Biden laptop. And I think in all of those things, the commonality is there wasn’t a concern about whether the Biden laptop was accurate or not. We now know the FBI already had it in its possession that already authenticated the laptop.”

“The same concern is expressed in the ODNI review of 2025 — that this operation didn’t seem to care about whether the information that was being uttered or spread was true,” the official continued. “They were simply interested in stopping its spread or using briefings to get people to stop talking about it.”

One CHS report from February 2019 states “CUB Energy Inc. (CUB) in Texas, is run by Mikhail Afeudkov. CUB was brought public via a reverse merger with a Canadian company. The scheme involves Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Devon Archer, and Chris Heinz-Kerry. The beneficiaries of CUB are Afeudkov and the former Ukrainian Minister of Ecology, Mykola Zlochevsky.”

“Burisma Holdings owns thirteen companies, which are used to pay dividends on investments through fake consulting contracts,” it continued. “The contracts are paid to US investors and funneled through Latvia and the energy sector of Ukraine. Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden, have money invested into Burisma. Their investment was passed through a shell company in Latvia.”

The FITF-R instead determined, without checking, that certain CHSs with damaging information for the Bidens and other Democrats were peddling “Russian disinformation.”

“While our internal review of the FITF is not yet complete, we are investigating whether the FITF used information learned from the Round River assessment to undermine or influence ongoing investigations by only focusing on the subset of CHS involving the Bidens,” FBI Director Kash Patel wrote in a letter to the White House Transparency Task Force. “We remain concerned that defensive briefings to Congress may have been overly focused on just Biden and Ukraine rather than the balanced picture of all foreign threats.”

“Round River identified at least 53 Confidential Human Sources (CHS) whose identities were potentially known to foreign intelligence and under hostile control,” Patel continued. “At least 14 of these CHSs reported derogatory information on Joe Biden. At my direction, this FBI will take the unprecedented step of providing you with the source reporting from all 53 sources so you can finally see the facts.”

The FITF-R divided those involved with the “Ukraine narrative” into “conduit” (those they considered “Russian disinformation threats,” the administration official said) and “target” (those they considered “victims”).

The official noted that many considered “threats” happened to be many of the same people investigating Hunter Biden.

Conduits include:

1. Rudy Giuliani
2. Then-Attorney General Bill Barr
3. Then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
4. Then-Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.
5. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis.,
6. Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa
7. Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio
8. Then-Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif.
9. Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas
10. Then-acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney
11. One America News Network
12. Chanel Rion (OANN White House correspondent)
13. Fox News
14. Herring Networks (Owner of OANN)

Targets include:

1. Joe Biden
2. Barack Obama
3. Hillary Clinton
4. George Soros, left-wing dark money billionaire
5. Hunter Biden
6. Former Secretary of State John Kerry
7. Victoria Nuland, former State Department spokeswoman
8. Former CIA Coordinator for Counterterrorism Cofer Black, who joined the board of Burisma alongside Hunter Biden
9. Paul Pelosi, husband of former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., “target (part of a Soros-linked conspiracy theory)”
10. Tom Steier, “target (part of a Soros-linked conspiracy theory)”
11. Devon Archer, former Biden family business partner
12. Michael Donilon (advisor to Joe Biden),
13. Tom Donilon (Black Rock Institutional Investments)
14. Amos Hochstein (Board Member, Naftohaz Ukraine)
15. Dale Perry (Managing Partner, Energy Resources Ukraine),
16. John Templeton (Franklin Templeton Investments),
17. Michael Hesenstab (Vice President, Franklin Templeton Investments)
18. Stanford University, “seems tangential (ref to allegedly Soros-sponsored research)”
19. Yale University, “seems tangential (ref to allegedly Soros-sponsored research)”

Some of the CHSs had been used by the FBI since the Bush administration, and some of the CHS reports with damning information about the Bidens come from the Obama administration.

For example, one CHS whose status was opened in May 2012 reported in December 2015 that “CHS knows a Russian Intelligence Officer (IO) who told the CHS that Mykola Zlochevsky… is using his relationship with Hunter Biden to get closer to the Americans. … The IO referred to the relationship between Zlochevsky and Biden as a long-term operation/long penetration.”

According to the ODNI report, another CHS “discussed his relationship with Hunter Biden, who consulted CHS before he decided to work for Burisma. CHS also mentioned that approximately one year prior, Yuri Boyko could get access to the Ukrainian government investigation into Burisma and Boyko offered the information to the CHS.”

Breccan F. Thies is the White House correspondent for The Federalist. He is a co-recipient of the 2025 Dao Prize for Excellence in Investigative Journalism. As an investigative journalist, he previously covered education and culture issues for the Washington Examiner and Breitbart News. He holds a degree from the University of Virginia and is a 2022 Claremont Institute Publius Fellow. You can follow him on X: @BreccanFThies.