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Newly declassified intelligence records describe an FBI operation called Round River that sought to identify Biden-Ukraine corruption allegations as Russian disinformation even as at least 14 confidential sources supplied derogatory information about the Biden family, while senior Trump administration officials, Republican lawmakers and media organizations were labeled potential “conduits” for foreign influence.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
Newly declassified U.S. intelligence records are revealing the scope of a secret FBI counterintelligence operation that scrutinized allegations involving Joe Biden, Hunter Biden and Ukraine during the 2020 election while classifying prominent government officials, members of Congress and journalists as potential “conduits” of Russian disinformation.
The records, released Wednesday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force and reported by Just the News, show that the FBI and other intelligence agencies had received derogatory reporting about the Bidens from at least 14 informants. At the same time, a Foreign Influence Task Force operation known as “Round River” examined the Biden-Ukraine allegations as a possible Russian influence narrative.
Defensive Briefing Spreadsheet by yourNEWS Media
FBI Director Kash Patel said the task force has since been terminated and that the bureau is investigating whether the operation was improperly used to interfere with or influence investigative activity surrounding the Bidens.
One of the newly released records, a defensive briefing spreadsheet recovered from intelligence agency files, lists more than six dozen people and organizations connected in some fashion to the Biden family’s Ukraine controversy or President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
The classifications divide many of the figures along striking political lines.
Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama and George Soros were among those identified as “targets” of Russian disinformation. Fox News, One America News, filmmaker Michael Caputo and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani were placed in a separate category as “conduits.”
The same designation was assigned to Attorney General Bill Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, two members of Trump’s first-term Cabinet, as well as Republican Sens. Chuck Grassley, Ron Johnson and Lindsey Graham and House Republican committee chairmen Devin Nunes and Jim Jordan.
Those lawmakers and administration officials were simultaneously examining allegations surrounding the Biden family and Ukraine.
The FBI headquarters-based Foreign Influence Task Force, or FITF, recorded “no objection” to the individual assessments contained in the spreadsheet, according to the declassified records.
Numerous Americans on the list were identified as possible recipients of defensive intelligence briefings. The available documents do not establish how many ultimately received them.
According to an administration official cited in the materials, Round River was developed during the 2020 election by FBI analysts assigned to identify “malign foreign influence.”
Patel told the White House task force that the FBI is now examining whether that mission crossed into domestic political activity.
“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’s (Confidential Human Sources) involving the Bidens,” Patel wrote in a letter reviewed by Just the News.
“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,” he added.
Patel said the FBI is “firmly committed to identifying, investigating and holding accountable all abuses” connected to Round River and ensuring “that future counterintelligence operations remain focused exclusively on legitimate foreign threats and are never used to advance political narratives.”
The FBI’s statement concerning Round River was among the documents released as part of the disclosure.
Round River presents a notable contrast to Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI investigation of allegations that Trump’s 2016 campaign conspired with Russia. Just the News previously described the newly revealed operation as a mirror image of the earlier Russia investigation.
Crossfire Hurricane pursued claims involving potential Trump-Russia coordination. Round River, by contrast, examined evidence concerning the Bidens already circulating within the government and sought to determine whether that material was tied to Russian influence.
The operation also unfolded while the FBI possessed Hunter Biden’s laptop and years of confidential-source reporting involving the Biden family.
Separate documents released earlier this month disclosed another 2017 FBI investigation codenamed “Oxferd Comma.” That operation examined whether newly elected President Trump might have been acting as a Russian asset when he fired FBI Director James Comey, despite evidence within the bureau at the time weighing against allegations of collusion with the Kremlin.
The Biden-related intelligence, meanwhile, stretched back years before the 2020 presidential campaign.
According to a newly released FBI letter, at least 14 confidential sources had supplied derogatory information involving the Bidens. Some reporting began in 2015 and concerned whether Ukrainian interests were attempting to gain influence with the future first family.
A 2025 Office of the Director of National Intelligence review, declassified Wednesday, provides a detailed account of how Round River handled that reporting.
“The Round River team did not corroborate any of the allegations of the ‘Ukraine narrative,’” the DNI summary concluded.
The declassified intelligence slide deck traces the operation’s beginnings to December 2019, when Trump’s first impeachment proceedings were underway.
DELTA Project Slide Deck by yourNEWS Media
“Around December 2019, 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, Ukraine interference in 2016 US presidential election to red flag the reporting as Russian disinformation,” the DNI report said.
The review alleges analysts went beyond simply examining the information and placed intelligence products into source files that characterized reporting as Russian disinformation.
“The team of analysts had administrative accesses to all reporting and drafted intelligence products that were later added to each CHS file to show the reporting was deemed Russian disinformation,” the DNI memo stated. “The FITF-R team also provided defensive briefings to any Congressional member who obtained reporting related to any aspect of the Ukraine narrative.”
Three longtime confidential sources received particular attention in the DNI review.
One source had worked with the government since 2012 and began reporting in 2015 about Burisma Holdings founder Mykola Zlochevsky and the company’s relationship with Hunter Biden, who joined Burisma’s board while Joe Biden was vice president.
“CHS knows a Russian Intelligence Officer (JO) who told the CHS that Mykola Zlochevsky […] is using his relationship with Hunter Biden to get closer to the Americans,” the DNI summary memo stated. “The IO referred to the relationship between Zlochevsky and Biden as a long-term operation/long penetration.”
A second informant, whose reporting extended from 2017 through 2022, alleged that Burisma operated within a broader Ukrainian corruption system involving payments routed through purported consulting arrangements.
“Zlochevsky had an INTERPOL investigation on him. He allegedly paid Poroshenko $100,000,000 to stop the case against him. The bribe was in the form of shares and guaranteed profits from gas sales in Ukraine. According to [a protected sub-source], two CIA officers took Zlochevsky into the office of Yuriy Lutsenko, who was the prosecutor general of Ukraine. The CIA officers allegedly said Zlochevsky is protected by the U.S. and urged Lutsenko to stop the investigation on Zlochevsky and let him back into Ukraine,” the DNI summary stated.
The same source supplied additional allegations about Burisma’s business structure and the Bidens.
“Burisma Holdings owns thirteen companies, which are used to pay dividends on investments through fake consulting contracts. 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 shelf company in Latvia,” the summary said.
Those claims represent confidential-source reporting contained in the government records; the Round River team itself stated that it did not corroborate the allegations.
A third source had worked intermittently with the U.S. government since 2008 and was described in the DNI material as having direct access to Hunter Biden. That source provided information in October 2019, as House Democrats were pursuing Trump’s impeachment.
“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,” the DNI summary stated. “CHS discussed how they sat down with those who had previously offered the CHS the Burisma dossier and requested a copy.”
According to the newly declassified review, Round River analysts later marked reporting from all three sources as connected to Russian disinformation.
Round River also directed activity outside FBI headquarters.
The records indicate the operation involved multiple FBI field offices, including Pittsburgh, where Barr had assigned a U.S. attorney to examine information from a longtime confidential source alleging that Zlochevsky and Burisma sought to compromise the Bidens through lucrative payments to Hunter Biden.
Giuliani was another early focus of Round River because of his attempts to investigate Hunter and Joe Biden’s activities in Ukraine. Just the News first reported the operation’s existence in March, identifying it as one of four codenamed FBI counterintelligence investigations involving Trump or his supporters.
The operation subsequently expanded to encompass numerous public officials and other figures discussing potential Biden family corruption.
Grassley, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Johnson, chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, have investigated Round River for years. Both have questioned whether a defensive briefing they received in 2020 was intended to interfere with their inquiry into Burisma and the Biden family.
The operation effectively treated investigative activity surrounding Barr’s review of Biden-related allegations as a potential foreign-disinformation concern while the Biden presidential campaign and major media organizations were publicly dismissing many of the same allegations as “conspiracy theories.”
Government records referred to that collection of allegations as the “Ukraine narrative.”
The controversy continued after the 2020 election.
Beginning in 2023, two IRS whistleblowers and former Hunter Biden business associates provided information to Congress concerning Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings, unpaid taxes and attempts to use his father’s position in matters involving Burisma.
Hunter Biden was later convicted of federal tax and gun offenses before receiving a pardon from his father.
Reporting about Joe Biden’s role in U.S. policy toward Ukraine also evolved as additional records became public. The Washington Post later examined the circumstances surrounding then-Vice President Biden’s involvement in U.S. pressure for the removal of a Ukrainian prosecutor.
Congressional Republicans subsequently conducted an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden’s involvement with his family’s foreign business relationships.
House committees concluded in August 2024 that Biden had engaged in impeachable conduct by assisting business arrangements that enriched members of his family and misleading voters about those relationships.
The committees specifically cited meetings and interactions between Biden and his son’s foreign business associates, contending that he “actively participated” in an influence-peddling operation.
The House findings were congressional conclusions rather than a criminal conviction of Joe Biden.
The newly declassified Round River documents now place those later investigations against a different backdrop: Years before much of the information became public, the FBI and intelligence community already possessed extensive reporting concerning the Bidens from multiple confidential sources.
Yet the same federal counterintelligence apparatus was simultaneously examining the Biden-Ukraine allegations through the framework of Russian influence, identifying government officials and lawmakers investigating those claims as potential “conduits” and, according to the DNI review, altering intelligence records associated with three sources to indicate their reporting had been deemed Russian disinformation.
Patel’s FBI is now investigating how those decisions were made, whether Round River affected active investigations and whether congressional defensive briefings presented an incomplete picture of the foreign threats under examination.
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