by John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy
Newly-unclassified documents show that in 2022 Ukrainian officials discussed diverting hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars -- earmarked for clean energy -- back to Biden's ill-fated 2024 campaign. There is no evidence the intercepted allegations were investigated during the Biden administration.
U.S. intelligence intercepted Ukrainian government communications discussing a plot to route hundreds of millions of American tax dollars earmarked for clean energy in the war-torn country and move them to the United States to enrich then-President Joe Biden’s 2024 re-election campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to a declassified intelligence report summarizing the intercepts that was obtained by Just the News.
Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard recently learned of the intercepts and has asked the U.S. Agency for International Development officials to scour for records to see if the plot actually was carried out and whether a criminal referral should be made to the FBI.
Gabbard's team has not found substantive evidence the intercepted allegations were thoroughly investigated during the Biden administration, and the communications are not believed to be tied to Russian disinformation efforts, officials said.
USAID involved in routing the money, memo alleges
The declassified report is a summary of raw intercepts from U.S. spy agencies in late 2022 concerning the alleged plot, and officials who have reviewed the files said there seemed to be a lack of curiosity to investigate such an explosive allegation of foreign interference in a U.S. election.
“The Ukrainian Government and unspecified U.S. Government personnel, through USAID in Kyiv, reportedly developed a plan that would provide hundreds of millions of US taxpayer dollars to fund an infrastructure project for Ukraine that would be used as a cover to send approximately 90% of funds allocated to the DNC to fund Joe Biden’s reelection campaign,” the declassified summary of the intercepts stated.
“They were confident the project would be funded initially, even though at some time in the future the project would be disapproved as unnecessary. At this time, the money would already be allocated and impossible to return or use for a different purpose,” the report added.
The intercepts mentioned two American subcontractors as possible recipients of the money that would eventually be moved to Democratic coffers, officials said. The names are included in still classified raw spy data but were redacted from the declassified report obtained by Just the News.
“The plan included details of how subcontractors would be funded through U.S. companies so that how the funds were spent and allocated would be difficult to track,” the declassified summary stated. “Additionally, contracts would be executed that would be difficult to verify. In this manner, most of the U.S. funding would be diverted to Joe Biden’s election campaign without the ability to track where exactly the funds came from.”
The discovery of alleged 2022 efforts by Ukraine to help Biden’s 2024 campaign comes at a sensitive time for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has been working closely with President Donald Trump’s envoys to craft a peace plan to end the four-year war started by Russian aggression in 2022 during the Biden Administration.
Allegations of corruption in Ukraine a recurring theme
While winning praise from the Trump administration for making concessions, Zelenskyy’s administration has still been dogged by new allegations of corruption. Andriy Yermark, the now-former Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine and a longtime close Zelenskyy ally, resigned from his position in late November following searches of his home by two Ukrainian agencies — the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP).
“#NABU and #SAPO are conducting investigative actions (searches) at the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine. Investigative actions are sanctioned and are being carried out as part of the investigation,” NABU said in a late November statement on X, with SAPO issuing a similar statement the same day.
The two Ukrainian agencies had announced earlier in November that a “high-level criminal organization operating in [the] energy sector” had been “exposed” as part of “Operation Midas.”
Yermak said in late November that “the investigators have no obstacles” during their search of his home and that “from my side, there is full cooperation.”
“When all attention is focused on diplomacy and on defending ourselves in this war, we need internal strength. Internal strength is the foundation of our external unity and of our relations with the world,” Zelenskyy said in a national address announcing Yermak’s resignation late last year. “And for that internal strength to exist, there must be no reason to get distracted by anything other than defending Ukraine. I want no one to have any questions for Ukraine.”
The Ukrainian president added: “So today, these are the next internal decisions. First. There will be a reset of the Office of the President of Ukraine. The Head of the Office, Andriy Yermak, has submitted his resignation. I am grateful to Andriy for always representing Ukraine’s position on the negotiation track exactly as it should be represented. It has always been a patriotic position. But I want to eliminate any rumors and speculation.”
In addition, sources close to Zelenskyy have floated the idea of assisting the Trump DOJ in its investigation of earlier efforts by a Ukrainian oligarch named Mykola Zlochevsky to curry favor with the Biden family by hiring Hunter Biden as a board member and legal advisor at the Burisma Holdings energy company beginning in 2014, officials told Just the News. The assistance offered by Zelenskyy reportedly included arranging cooperation with certain Ukrainian witnesses who could assist U.S. authorities in resolving unanswered questions regarding the Biden family’s foreign corruption dealings.
President Joe Biden had long pledged that he would not pardon his son, Hunter, who was set to be sentenced for gun and tax convictions. But in December of 2024, the president did it anyway. Biden didn’t just pardon his son for his convictions on tax and gun charges, but for any “offenses against the United States which he has committed or may have committed or taken part in during the period from January 1, 2014, through December 1, 2024.”
Burisma became a hot-button issue when President Trump referenced it in a July 2019 call with Zelenskyy. The call spurred a whistleblower complaint by Eric Ciaramella (also involving Alexander and Eugene Vindman) which sparked Democratic-led impeachment proceedings in the House in 2019. Trump was acquitted by the Senate in early 2020.
Trump and his Republican allies claimed Joe Biden improperly used his position as vice president to successfully pressure Ukraine to fire Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin to protect his son from an investigation into Burisma. Democrats denied this and argued the focus on Burisma was part of an effort to dirty up then-candidate Biden.
Hunter Biden said in 2019 that he spoke with his father about his position on the Burisma board just once, saying his father told him, “I hope you know what you are doing.” Hunter Biden says he replied, “I do.”
Joe Biden’s son was asked if he would have been asked to be on the Burisma board if his last name was Biden. "Probably not, in retrospect," he said. "But that's — you know — I don't think that there's a lot of things that would have happened in my life if my last name wasn't Biden."
Hunter Biden, Devon Archer and Burisma: An arrangement worth millions of dollars
Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., released a joint report in 2020, with much of its focus on then-Vice President Biden’s role in helping guide the Obama administration’s Ukraine policy while Hunter Biden held a lucrative position on the board of Burisma.
“On April 16, 2014, Vice President Biden met with his son’s business partner, Devon Archer, at the White House. Five days later, Vice President Biden visited Ukraine, and he soon after was described in the press as the ‘public face of the administration’s handling of Ukraine.’ The day after his visit, on April 22, Archer joined the board of Burisma,” Grassley and Johnson wrote. “Six days later, on April 28, British officials seized $23 million from the London bank accounts of Burisma’s owner, Mykola Zlochevsky. Fourteen days later, on May 12, Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma, and over the course of the next several years, Hunter Biden and Devon Archer were paid millions of dollars from a corrupt Ukrainian oligarch for their participation on the board.”
In his 2021 memoir, Hunter Biden defended Zlochevsky, claiming the Ukrainian “was concerned with protecting his company from Vladimir Putin’s advances” and “wanted to lure more U.S. and European investors” — claiming that was why he was hired. Hunter Biden called the Burisma work “inspiring” and “consequential” while also admitting that “the pay was good” and that “there’s no question my last name was a coveted credential.”
Grassley in 2023 released an FBI-generated record — known as an FD-1023 — dated June 2020 and detailing allegations made by an FBI confidential human source (CHS) about Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and Zlochevsky.
The CHS — later revealed to be Alexander Smirnov — said Zlochevsky brought Hunter Biden onto the Burisma board to “protect us through his dad, from all kinds of problems.” Regarding the Shokin investigation’s possible impact on Burisma’s ambitions in North America, Zlochevsky reportedly said, “Don't worry Hunter will take care of all of those issues through his dad.”
Grassley recounted that “Zlochevsky reportedly stated that he had to pay $5 million to Hunter Biden and $5 million to Joe Biden, an arrangement he described as ‘poluchili,’ which is Russian crime slang for being ‘forced or coerced to pay,’ according to the document.”
The Biden DOJ charged Smirnov in February 2024 with making a false statement to federal agents and with creating a false and fictitious record. Smirnov pleaded guilty to four felony counts in December 2024, “including creating a false and fictitious record and three counts of tax evasion.”
The Trump DOJ in April 2025 told a federal judge that “the United States intends to review the government’s theory of the case underlying Defendant’s criminal conviction.”
John Solomon and Jerry Dunleavy
Source: https://justthenews.com/government/security/nsa-intercepted-ukraine-government-messages-discussing-effort-route-money-2024
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