In a recent revelation, CIA Director John Ratcliffe unveiled intelligence concerning Ukraine, deeming it of public interest.
The 8-page document, redacted and dated December 2015, pertains to the visit of then-Vice President Joe Biden to Ukraine from December 7-8 of that year.
According to The Post Millennial, officials from the administration of then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed confusion and disappointment following Biden's visit to Kiev. The document states, "After the visit, these officials assessed that the Vice President of the United States has come to Kiev almost exclusively to give a generic public speech and has no intention of discussing substantive matters with Poroshenko or other officials within the Ukrainian government."
The document further reveals that Ukrainian officials had anticipated Biden to discuss personnel matters with Poroshenko during his visit. They had assumed that the U.S. Vice President would advocate for or against specific officials within the Ukrainian government.
However, the visit did not meet these expectations, leading to private musings within the Poroshenko administration about the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President's family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine.
The officials saw this as a double standard, given that Biden had publicly spoken against corruption in Ukraine, yet faced accusations of similar practices. During his state visit, Biden addressed the Ukrainian Rada, or Parliament, calling for the dismissal of a prosecutor investigating Burisma, a Ukrainian energy giant.
His son, Hunter Biden, was a board member of this company, receiving a monthly payment of $80,000.
Biden stated, "As the Prime Minister and the President heard me often say, I never tell another man or another nation or another woman whats in their interest. But I can tell you, you cannot name me a single democracy in the world where the cancer of corruption is prevalent. You cannot name me one. They are thoroughly inconsistent. And its not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption."
He further emphasized the need for reform in the Office of the General Prosecutor, an overhaul of the judiciary, and the necessity for a competitive energy sector governed by market principles. He also called for transparency in official sources of income and the removal of conflicts between business interests and government responsibilities by senior elected officials.
Biden later boasted about his visit, stating that he was instructed to provide loan guarantees to Ukraine. He recalled, "I remember going over, convincing our team... that we should be providing for loan guarantees... and I was supposed to announce that there was another billion-dollar loan guarantee."
Biden recounted that he told the Ukrainian leaders, "I'm not going to, we're not going to give you the billion dollars." When they responded that only then-President Barack Obama could withhold the guarantees, Biden told them to call Obama, asserting, "I'm telling you you're not getting a billion dollars."
Biden later bragged, "I said, you're not getting a billion. I'm going to be leaving here.' I think it was what, six hours. I looked, and I said, 'I'm leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you're not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch, he got fired."
This revelation raises questions about the integrity of Biden's actions during his visit to Ukraine, particularly in light of his public stance against corruption. It also underscores the need for transparency and accountability in the actions of public officials, especially when their personal interests may conflict with their public duties.
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