Newly declassified documents reveal the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ran a secret operation to discredit lawmakers, media organizations, and confidential human sources (CHS) as potential conduits of “Russian disinformation” in order to defend President Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and other Biden family members from accusations of corruption.
The secret counter-intelligence task force, known as the Round River operation, billed itself as fighting “malign foreign influence” tied to the 2020 election.
However, the explosive documents reveal a highly partisan FBI operation that divided the principal subjects of investigation into “conduits” and “targets.”
Democrat Party allies like Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, Barack Obama, and George Soros were listed as “targets,” while Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), and the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were listed as “conduits,” alongside media organizations like the One American News Network and Fox News.
Defensive Briefing Spreadsheet by Kyle Becker
The FBI even went so far as to label former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former Attorney General Bill Barr as “conduits” for Russian disinformation for investigating the Biden family for Ukraine corruption.
The Round River operation was run out of the Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF) based at FBI headquarters. Just the News first reported on the existence of the Round River probe in March.
READ MORE: Boom: White House's 'Oxferd Comma' Document Dump Just Blew the Russia Hoax to Smithereens
The news outlet provided background and insights into the counter-intelligence operation.
Documents released by the White House earlier this month exposed an investigation in 2017 codenamed “Oxferd Comma” alleging the newly elected president Trump may have been acting as a Russian asset when he fired then-Director James Comey even though the bureau’s own evidence overwhelmingly showed at the time there was no collusion with the Kremlin.
Remarkably, the effort to portray the Biden scandal as Russian disinformation came even though confidential human sources working for the FBI and other agencies began reporting a steady stream of concerns starting in 2015 that Ukraine was possibly targeting the future first family for influence, the memos show. The FBI has identified at least 14 informants who were providing derogatory information on the Bidens, according to an FBI letter made public Wednesday.
FBI Director Kash Patel announced the Foreign Influence Task Force was terminated on his watch, and its activities were under investigation.
We share the concerns raised in the materials you transmitted suggesting the FBI’s then Foreign Influence Task Force (FITF), embedded in the FBI Counterintelligence Division at Headquarters, may have inappropriately focused on a small subset of information gleaned from the Round River assessment. As you know, Round River identified at least 53 Confidential Human Sources (CHS) whose identities were potentially known to foreign intelligence and under hostile control. 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. As you are aware, I immediately disbanded the FITF upon assuming the role of FBI Director. 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. 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.
A declassified briefing from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence provided further crucial context on the operation:
Scope: 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 Round River team operated leading up to and through the 2020 US Presidential election. 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 FITF-R team also provided defensive briefings to any Congressional member who obtained reporting related to any aspect of the "Ukraine narrative." The following is an illustrated example of some of the statements made by the aforementioned CHSs with respect to the "Ukraine narrative." The Round River team did not corroborate any of the allegations of the "Ukraine Narrative."
The ODNI’s declassified briefing can be viewed below:
The declassified documents show that the FBI treated legitimate investigations into alleged Biden family corruption as potential “Russian disinformation.”
The defensive briefing posted reveals an FBI that was thoroughly weaponized to accuse the Biden family’s critics of being influenced by foreign actors, while defending a presidential administration that was being accused of illicit foreign influence.
This is yet another critical glimpse into how the Deep State operates. The FBI has a long way to go before it can salvage its reputation. Transparency is the first place to start.
