Then-Vice President Joe Biden in 2015 told the CIA he would ‘strongly prefer’ an intelligence report documenting Ukrainian officials’ concerns with his family’s ties to ‘corrupt’ business deals in the country ‘not be disseminated’ — and so it wasn’t, according to a newly-declassified email and records made public by the agency. 

CIA Director John Ratcliffe declassified the heavily redacted records, which he said he believes is an example of ‘politicization of intelligence.’

Fox News Digital obtained the declassified documents, which were discovered during a CIA review of historical agency records.

A senior CIA official briefed Fox News Digital on the declassified documents and intelligence report, stating that the intelligence was discovered along with an email showing that Biden ‘expressed a preference to not share the report.’

Representatives for Biden did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.

CIA officials discovered and declassified an email dated February 10, 2016, with the subject line stating: ‘RE: OVP query regarding draft [REDACTED].’ The email was sent to the CIA.

The classification of the email was listed, and crossed out, as ‘SECRET.’

‘Good morning, I just spoke with VP/ NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding,’ the email states, signed by a redacted name, but with the title of ‘PDB Briefer.’ The ‘PDB’ is the presidential daily brief.

The report in question included intelligence revealing that Ukrainian officials viewed the Biden family’s alleged ties to corrupt business practices in Ukraine ‘as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.’

‘Intelligence officials agreed that, at the time of collection, it would have met the threshold [for dissemination], but based on the Office of the Vice President’s preference, the information was never shared outside of the CIA,’ the official said.

The CIA, during its review, confirmed that Biden’s request was granted and that the intelligence report ‘had not been disseminated.’

The senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that it was ‘extremely rare and unusual’ and ‘inappropriate to go outside of the intelligence community and inquire with the White House on the dissemination of a particular report for what appears to be political reasons.’

The newly declassified intelligence report, which Biden sought to keep private, had a subject line of: ‘NON-DISSEMINATED INTEL INFORMATION: Reactions of [REDACTED] Ukrainian Government Officials to the Early December Visit of Senior United States Government Official.’

The document states the date of the information came in December 2015. The document was created in 2016.

At the time, Biden was vice president and was running U.S.-Ukraine relations and policy for the Obama administration.

The intelligence document stated that ‘officials within the administration of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko expressed bewilderment and disappointment at the 7-8 December 2015 visit of the Vice President of the United States to Kiev, Ukraine.’

‘These officials highlighted that, prior to the visit, the Poroshenko administration and other [REDACTED] Ukrainian officials expected the U.S. Vice President to discuss personnel matters with Poroshenko during the visit, and had assumed that the U.S. Vice President would advocate in support of or against specific officials within the Ukrainian Government,’ the intelligence states.

‘After the visit, these officials assessed that the U.S. Vice President had come to Kiev almost exclusively to give a generic public speech, and had not had any intention of discussing substantive matters with Poroshenko or other officials within the Ukrainian government,’ the intelligence states.

‘Following the visit of the U.S. Vice President, [REDACTED] officials within the Poroshenko administration privately mused at the U.S. media scrutiny of the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corrupt business practices in Ukraine,’ the intelligence states. ‘These officials viewed the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President’s family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power.’

Biden, on Dec. 9, 2015, gave a speech in Ukraine, in which he discussed corruption in the country.

‘And it’s not enough to set up a new anti-corruption bureau and establish a special prosecutor fighting corruption,’ Biden said in the speech. ‘The Office of the General Prosecutor desperately needs reform.’

In that speech, Biden also said Ukraine’s ‘energy sector needs to be competitive, ruled by market principles — not sweetheart deals.’

‘It’s not enough to push through laws to increase transparency with regard to official sources of income,’ he said. ‘Senior elected officials have to remove all conflicts between their business interest and their government responsibilities.  Every other democracy in the world — that system pertains.’

At the time, Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin was investigating Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings. Several months later, in March 2016, Biden successfully pressured Ukraine to remove Shokin. At the time Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, Hunter Biden had a highly lucrative role on the board, receiving tens of thousands of dollars per month.

Biden, at the time, threatened to withhold $1 billion of critical U.S. aid if Shokin was not fired.

‘I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’’ Biden recalled telling then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko. 

Biden recollected the conversation during an event for the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018.

But during his first term, President Donald Trump was impeached after a July 2019 phone call in which he pressed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to launch investigations into the Biden family’s actions and business dealings in Ukraine, specifically Hunter Biden’s ventures with Burisma and Joe Biden’s successful effort to have former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin ousted.

At the same time as that call, Hunter Biden was under federal investigation, prompted by his suspicious foreign transactions. 

Trump was acquitted in Feb. 2020 on both articles of impeachment against him — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — after being impeached by the House of Representatives in December 2019. 

Meanwhile, the declassified intelligence report had a ‘warning,’ noting that ‘due to the extreme sensitivity, this report should be distributed only to the renamed recipients. No further distribution is authorized without prior approval of the originating agency. Violation of established handling procedures are subject to penalty, including termination of access to this reporting channel.’

It added that ‘any discussion of or reference to information in this report [REDACTED] is strictly prohibited. Any references to this report in derived or finished intelligence should include this warning.’

A senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that Ratcliffe believes the suppression of this intelligence is an example of ‘politicization of intelligence.’

‘Director Ratcliffe believes this is an example of politicization of intelligence that we need to work to eliminate and for what we have zero tolerance,’ a senior CIA official told Fox News Digital. ‘We believe transparency is important. We will release information and avoid any future weaponization of the intelligence community.’

As for the heavily redacted nature of the intelligence report, the senior CIA official told Fox News Digital that the agency was ‘careful about protecting CIA sources and methods with redactions.’

The official stressed that Ratcliffe believes in ‘maximum transparency’ and said he will continue to declassify CIA information and intelligence ‘when it serves the public’s interest.’

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives launched an impeachment inquiry against Biden during his presidency, and found, after years of investigating, that he engaged in ‘impeachable conduct,’ ‘abused his office,’ and ‘defrauded the United States to enrich his family.’ 

President Donald Trump made a social media post about Hamas on Sunday evening, minutes before the deadline for a peace proposal passed.

The deadline was 6 p.m. ET Sunday. In a message on Truth Social, Trump wrote that there had been ‘very positive discussions with Hamas, and Countries from all over the World (Arab, Muslim, and everyone else) this weekend, to release the Hostages, end the War in Gaza but, more importantly, finally have long sought PEACE in the Middle East.’

‘These talks have been very successful, and proceeding rapidly,’ Trump said. ‘The technical teams will again meet Monday, in Egypt, to work through and clarify the final details.’

The president added that the first phase of the peace plan ‘should be completed this week.’

‘I am asking everyone to MOVE FAST,’ Trump emphasized. ‘I will continue to monitor this Centuries old ‘conflict.’’

Trump added, ‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE OR, MASSIVE BLOODSHED WILL FOLLOW — SOMETHING THAT NOBODY WANTS TO SEE!’

Trump previously announced the deadline in an Oct. 3 post on Truth Social, delivering an ominous warning to Hamas about accepting the deal.

‘If this LAST CHANCE agreement is not reached, all HELL, like no one has ever seen before, will break out against Hamas,’ Trump wrote. ‘THERE WILL BE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST ONE WAY OR THE OTHER. Thank you for your attention to this matter!’

The peace proposal was unveiled by Trump in late September.

The plan calls for an end to Israel’s military operations, the disarmament of Hamas and the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip under a Palestinian governing body overseen by a U.S.-led international coalition.

Israeli  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s reportedly agreed to the 20-point plan, per Reuters.

Fox News Digital’s Caitlin McFall and Bonny Chu contributed to this report.

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, a staunch and unflinching Israel supporter, wants Hamas to accept the peace deal President Donald Trump is aiming to help broker, and is calling out pro-Palestinian protesters for not demanding that Hamas agree to the peace deal.

‘Good morning to everyone except all the protesters who aren’t protesting for Hamas to accept the peace deal,’ the senator declared in a Sunday post on X.

In a post on Friday, Fetterman shared a screenshot of a Mediaite headline that read, ‘CNN’s Dana Bash Wonders Why Pro-Palestine Movement Isn’t Pressuring Hamas to Accept Trump Deal’ — in his post, the senator commented, ‘For those protesters: Hamas > Peace,’ adding, ‘No flotilla, blocking a highway or disrupting public events demanding Hamas to take the peace deal.’

Israel went to war against Hamas in response to the heinous October 7, 2023, attack in which terrorists committed atrocities including mass murder, rape, and kidnapping. But Trump posted a statement on Truth Social last week in which Hamas declared willingness to negotiate a deal including the release of all hostages, dead and alive.

‘Hamas must choose peace or its own destruction. Send the hostages home, now. As an unapologetic supporter of Israel, the Gaza War must end to have peace and security for Israel and Palestinians. Politics aside, credit to @POTUS’ peace plan to get to this encouraging point,’ Fetterman noted in a Friday post on X, sharing a screenshot of a Reuters headline that said, ‘Hamas says it agrees to release all Israeli hostages under Trump Gaza plan.’

Trump indicated in a Sunday evening Truth Social post, ‘There have been very positive discussions with Hamas, and Countries from all over the World (Arab, Muslim, and everyone else) this weekend, to release the Hostages, end the War in Gaza but, more importantly, finally have long sought PEACE in the Middle East.’  

Later in the post, he warned, ‘TIME IS OF THE ESSENCE OR, MASSIVE BLOODSHED WILL FOLLOW — SOMETHING THAT NOBODY WANTS TO SEE!’

Fetterman accused the Democratic Party of an ‘ongoing and escalating betrayal of Israel,’ in a post on X last month.

Sharing a screenshot of a headline from The Hill that read, ‘Pair of Senate Democrats charge Israel with ‘ethnic cleansing’ of Palestinians,’ Fetterman firmly pushed back.

‘I reject this in the strongest terms. My party’s ongoing and escalating betrayal of Israel is gross and outrageous,’ he asserted.

A growing number of lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have declared they’re forgoing their paychecks as the government shutdown drags on.

The federal government has been shut down for nearly a week after Senate Democrats rejected Republicans’ plan to fund agencies through Nov. 21 multiple times.

Reps. Chip Roy, R-Texas, Ashley Hinson, R-Iowa, Tom Barrett, R-Mich., Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, and Rob Bresnahan, R-Pa., are among the Republicans who wrote to the Chief Administrative Officer of the U.S. House of Representatives asking for their pay to be withheld during a shutdown.

Democrats like Reps. Josh Gottheimer, D-N.J., and Lou Correa, D-Calif., have requested the same.

But lawmakers requesting their pay be withheld cannot forgo it altogether, because federal law requires them to be paid.

Article I of the Constitution states, ‘The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.’

Further, the 27th Amendment prevents any changes to congressional pay until after the next election.

Most House and Senate lawmakers are paid $174,000 yearly — a figure that has not changed since 2009 — while members of congressional leadership can earn more.

A source familiar with the matter told Fox News Digital that members of Congress can elect to have their pay withheld until a shutdown is over, but they must receive that as backpay when the government is funded again.

Meanwhile, Rep. Joe Morelle, D-N.Y., the top Democrat on the Committee for House Administration, told Bloomberg Government last week that those checks can go into an account separate from lawmakers’ usual salaries. He told the outlet, ‘It’s an administrative way of withholding pay for people who choose to.’

Congressional staffers, meanwhile, automatically miss paychecks if their pay period falls during a government shutdown — but that is also backpaid when the shutdown ends.

Some lawmakers, like Sens. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have announced they would donate their paychecks for the duration of the shutdown.

‘Each day the government remains closed, I will be donating my salary to the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay, which provides help to vulnerable populations who may be impacted by this reckless choice,’ Moody said in a statement last week.

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said he believes President Donald Trump’s new Gaza peace plan could represent a ‘once-in-a-generation opportunity for Middle East peace.’

On Monday, Trump released his Gaza peace plan, which Israel agreed to. Despite U.S. criticism of the U.N.’s actions in Gaza, the plan relies on the international body’s assistance. When asked how this would work, Waltz said that the U.S., while working with the U.N. in Gaza, will ‘continue to call it out’ and will ‘demand reforms.’

In an interview with Fox News Digital, Waltz highlighted a key issue with the U.N.: aid delivery in Gaza. The U.N.’s numbers show that nearly 90% of its aid trucks were intercepted by armed groups or crowds of hungry people between May 19 and Aug. 5. The U.S. has pointed to Hamas as the main culprit, saying operatives of the terrorist organization steal the aid to make money by selling it.

‘We can’t have a situation where U.N. agencies — the U.S. pays for about a quarter of their costs — are actually delivering aid in a way that Hamas takes it over. Hamas uses it to make money reselling it on the black market,’ Waltz told Fox News Digital.

The U.S.- and Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, which has been heavily criticized by the U.N., said on Friday that it had delivered more than 178 million meals since starting its operation in May.

Waltz hit the ground running after his appointment to the role on Sept. 19, just days before the international body held its ‘High-level Week.’ During that week, leaders from around the world, including Trump, addressed fellow member states in New York City.

Trump has made it clear that his goal is to be a peacemaker, something Waltz emphasized during his sit-down with Fox News Digital. However, that doesn’t mean he isn’t bringing his own experience to the role.

‘Green Berets are called ‘warrior diplomats.’ We often have a big stick behind us,’ Waltz, who was the first Green Beret elected to Congress, told Fox News Digital.

He compared this ethos to Trump’s handling of Iran over the summer.

‘He gave them opportunity after opportunity to walk away from a weaponized nuclear program, to handover their enriched materials, to engage in diplomacy and when they didn’t, our amazing B-2s went and took it out,’ he said.

Waltz said he was looking to follow Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visions to carry out America First policies and ‘make the U.N. great again.’ He said the institution had moved away from its roots and was not acting as a place where everyone from around the world could work out issues, but the U.S. is looking to bring that back.

The other major priority for the U.S. at the U.N., according to Waltz, is to get rid of ‘the bloat.’

‘Like any bureaucracy over 80 years, it has gotten too big, too bureaucratic, and therefore less effective. So I’m not going to say that we’re going to pull the DOGE up here, but we definitely need to make some cuts,’ he told Fox News Digital.

Waltz pointed to a recent vote on Haiti as an example of the U.S. working to achieve results at the U.N. As a former congressman from Florida, he noted that the lawlessness in Haiti has spilled onto U.S. shores. However, Waltz believes the U.N.-backed gang-suppression force will restore law and order, without making the U.S. foot the bill.

‘In line with what the president has demanded, we’re going to share the burden,’ Waltz said. ‘Other countries are involved. Kenya has taken the lead, El Salvador is taking a key role. Other countries are paying for it. It’s not just all on the United States’ shoulders.’

Waltz acknowledged Americans’ skepticism about the U.N., but he argued that it’s essential for the world’s leaders to meet on U.S. soil, and for Washington to remain at the table. He also pointed to the growing influence of international bodies on the American economy through regulation.

‘There’s all these international bodies that can directly affect our economy and our way of life that touch aviation and how we fly around the world, space, telecommunications, radio, data,’ he said. ‘And just as we fight for deregulation in our own federal government, we certainly don’t want global overregulation on many of our industries.’

Waltz stressed that staying engaged globally is critical to protecting U.S. interests and preventing bad actors from filling the void.

‘We have to say engaged, I think, to fight for the values that we hold dear. And if anything, this president is a fighter. We’re going to keep fighting for our way of life,’ Waltz said.

The FBI says two men have been indicted in connection with an alleged money-laundering scheme tied to Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro’s children.

The indictments come after a years-long investigation that dates back to 2019 when the FBI’s Miami Field Office launched the probe based on indications that Arick Komarczyk opened U.S. bank accounts for Maduro’s children and their U.S.-based associates. Suspicious Activity Reports allegedly showed that Komarczyk received wire transfers from individuals and businesses in Venezuela, according to the FBI.

An undercover operation in 2022 revealed that Komarczyk and his associate, Irazmar Carbajal, agreed to move $100,000 of what the FBI believed to be sanctioned money belonging to members of Venezuela’s government. The FBI said the men moved about $25,000 into the U.S.

The bureau noted that when confronted about the situation, Kormarczyk was not alarmed, rather he called it ‘sexy business.’

FBI Director Kash Patel said money-laundering schemes linked to Maduro were ‘criminal lifelines’ for his regime.

‘Nicolás Maduro is not just another corrupt strongman, he is an indicted narcoterrorist dictator with a $50 million bounty on his head from the United States Department of Justice,’ Patel said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital. ‘His regime’s laundering schemes are nothing more than criminal lifelines for a failing dictatorship, and under my leadership, this FBI will continue to choke off every dollar, every account, and every enabler. America will never be a safe haven for Maduro’s blood money.’

On Sept. 25, both Kormarczyk and Carbajal were indicted in Florida. Kormarczyk was indicted on charges of money laundering and conspiracy to commit unlicensed money transmitting, while Carbajal was indicted for conspiracy to commit unlicensed money transmitting.

Carbajal traveled from his home country of Uruguay to the Dominican Republic, but he was deported on Oct. 2. The deportation flight made a layover in the U.S., where Carbajal was arrested, the FBI said. Meanwhile, Komarczyk is believed to be living in Venezuela, according to the bureau.

‘The Maduro regime’s alleged efforts to attempt evasion and conduct money laundering in the United States through third-party individuals will not go unchecked,’ FBI Miami Special Agent in Charge Brett Skiles said in an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital.

‘Komarczyk and Carbajal’s indictments should demonstrate the FBI’s commitment to investigating alleged international money laundering involving [Office of Foreign Assets Control] sanctioned governments and individuals,’ Skiles added. ‘The United States and our financial institutions will never be a safe haven for international corruption and money laundering, particularly for those countries which pose significant risks to our national interests.’

The U.S. does not recognize Maduro as a legitimate leader and the Department of Justice has an active reward for information leading to his arrest and/or conviction.

Patel’s remarks echoed the Trump administration’s condemnation of the Maduro regime.

In July, on the one-year anniversary of an election in which Maduro declared himself the winner, Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a statement expressing solidarity with the people of Venezuela. He vowed the United States would continue working with its partners ‘to hold accountable the corrupt, criminal and illegitimate Maduro regime.’

The government shutdown costs taxpayers $400 million every day to pay federal employees who are not actively working, totaling $1.2 billion as of Friday, Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data published by Sen. Joni Ernst’s, R-Iowa, office estimates. 

‘Schumer’s Shutdown Shenanigans mean taxpayers will be on the hook for another $400 million today to pay 750,000 non-essential bureaucrats NOT to work,’ Ernst said in comment to Fox News Digital Friday. 

‘Democrats’ political stunt to fight for taxpayer-funded healthcare for illegal immigrants has officially become a billion-dollar boondoggle,’ she added. ‘Enough has to be enough for the radical left. We must reopen the government and get Washington back to work serving veterans, families, and hardworking Americans.’ 

A law passed in 2019 requires furloughed employees receive backpay after a funding agreement is reached and a shutdown ends. The CBO found that the furloughed employees’ daily cost of compensation sits at about $400 million, or a total of $1.2 billion as of Friday. 

‘Using information from the agencies’ contingency plans and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), CBO estimates that under a lapse in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026 about 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day; the total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million,’ a letter from the Congressional Budget Office to Ernst stated Tuesday. The data was released after the Iowa Republican requested CBO provide a data cost breakdown of the shutdown in September as the deadline clock ran out. 

The CBO data largely was based on statistics from a five-week partial shutdown that ran from Dec. 22, 2018, until Jan. 25, 2019, under the first Trump administration, the office noted in its letter to Ernst.

The letter added that the number of furloughed federal employees, which is currently estimated to sit at about 750,000 staffers, could vary by the day ‘because some agencies might furlough more employees the longer a shutdown persists and others might recall some initially furloughed employees.’ 

The government shut down early Wednesday morning after Senate lawmakers failed to reach a budget agreement. House lawmakers had approved a short-term extension of fiscal year 2025 funding earlier in September that aimed to keep the government funded through Nov. 21. 

The Trump administration and Republicans have since pinned blame for the shutdown on Democrats, claiming they sought taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats have denied they want to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants, and instead have blamed Republicans for the shutdown.

Fox News Digital reached out to Schumer’s office for comment on the CBO data and Ernst’s remarks but did not immediately receive a reply. 

White House spokesman Kush Desai slammed Democrats as ‘not serious people’ when asked about the CBO data Friday morning. 

‘Democrats are burning $400 million a day to pay federal workers not to work because they want to spend $200 billion on free health care for illegal aliens,’ Desai told Fox News Digital. ‘These are not serious people.’ 

Trump repeatedly has said he did not want a shutdown to unfold, but noted Tuesday as the clock ran out that some ‘good’ could come from it. 

‘A lot of good can come down from shutdowns,’ he told reporters. ‘We can get rid of a lot of things that we didn’t want, and they’d be Democrat things. But they want open borders. They want men playing in women’s sports. They want transgender for everybody. They never stop. They don’t learn. We won an election in a landslide.’ 

The administration is expected to lay off federal employees across various agencies amid the shutdown, with Trump meeting Office of Management and Budget chief Russell Vought Thursday to map out which departments and programs to target for cuts. 

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters Thursday that ‘thousands’ of employees will likely be laid off. 

‘Look, it’s likely going to be in the thousands,’ Leavitt said. ‘It’s a very good question. And that’s something that the Office of Management and Budget and the entire team at the White House here, again, is unfortunately having to work on today.’