Declassified Documents Show Slim Evidence Used to Revoke Ukrainian Witness’s Visa Ahead of Senate Biden Probe

Newly released memos show that U.S. officials revoked the visa of a Ukrainian former embassy aide in September 2020 on limited and conflicting grounds, blocking him from traveling to the United States for an interview with Senate investigators examining Hunter Biden’s work with Burisma Holdings.

The documents, made public by the White House Government Transparency Task Force and declassified on October 13, 2026, detail actions by the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force and the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv. Andrii Telizhenko, who had worked with the Democrat-aligned consulting firm Blue Star Strategies on Burisma matters and previously served as a trusted contact for Obama administration officials, was set to provide information to Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley. His planned travel was halted when his visa was prudentially revoked the day before he intended to depart.

An August 2020 FBI memo noted that Telizhenko had been banned from entering Russia due to his involvement in the 2014 Ukrainian revolution and was listed as a spy by the Russian government. The same memo recorded that Russian officials attempted to recruit him in the summer of 2019 via Facebook and in person. Telizhenko blocked the Facebook account after identifying it as Russian and rejected an in-person recruitment offer, after which he was blocked from certain political sessions and news channels.

Despite this information, agencies moved to prevent his arrival. Emails show a member of the FBI Foreign Influence Task Force’s Russia division writing on September 8, 2020, that the task force had just been informed of Telizhenko’s intention to travel to the United States and was preparing a letterhead memorandum to request visa revocation. By the next day, agents noted that the visa had already been revoked by the Embassy in Kyiv, rendering further work unnecessary. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent later described the revocation as occurring the day before Telizhenko planned to travel to provide what Kent called “manufactured case information.”

Telizhenko had previously alleged that Ukrainian embassy officials directed him in 2016 to work with a U.S.-based activist to dig up information on then-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. By 2020, Johnson and Grassley sought his account of Burisma’s efforts to curry favor with the Obama-Biden administration through Blue Star Strategies, as well as alleged Ukrainian embassy activity related to the 2016 election. Earlier that year, an FBI “defensive briefing” warning that Telizhenko might be tied to Russian-friendly figures had already led Johnson to abandon a planned subpoena for his testimony and instead seek records from Blue Star Strategies.

A long-secret Treasury Department memo recommending sanctions against Telizhenko asserted that his claims could not be accurate because “every witness interviewed for [the senators’] investigation testified that Vice President Biden did not alter United States foreign policy to benefit his son Hunter Biden, and that Hunter Biden’s presence on the board of the Ukrainian gas company Burisma had no effect on U.S. foreign policy.” Subsequent reporting and documents have conflicted with that assertion. Career State Department officials had recommended approving a $1 billion loan guarantee to Ukraine and retaining Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin, whose office was investigating Burisma. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler later updated prior reporting to note that then-Vice President Biden may have “called an audible” and changed the plan regarding Shokin’s firing while en route to Kyiv in December 2015. In a November 2016 email, George Kent wrote that Hunter Biden’s presence on the Burisma board “undercut the anti-corruption message” the United States was advancing in Ukraine.

The Intelligence Community assessed that Telizhenko was, at a minimum, unwittingly fueling Russian influence programs, citing his alleged association with Andriy Derkach—a Ukrainian parliamentarian later sanctioned as a Russian agent—and the amplification of his narratives by Russian media. Much of the supporting evidence in the relevant CIA notice remains redacted. Telizhenko has denied any affiliation with Derkach, stating that his reporting on Hunter Biden predated Derkach’s involvement. He was ultimately sanctioned by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control on January 11, 2021, under Executive Order 13848 for alleged foreign interference in a U.S. election.

Telizhenko told Just the News that the accusations of Russian ties came as a shock given his prior work for the Ukrainian government. “I was sanctioned for six years, putting my life into disaster. But I would’ve done it again. Telling the truth about this, I hoped would lead to something good,” he said. Johnson and Grassley previously stated that restricting inquiries associated with individuals of “ill repute” would hinder efforts to uncover wrongdoing. The newly released records indicate that officials who moved to block Telizhenko’s travel and later support sanctions possessed information showing he had rejected Russian overtures and been targeted by Moscow.

The documents form part of a broader set of materials released by the White House task force concerning U.S. government handling of Ukraine-related allegations during the 2020 election cycle. They include internal communications showing the rapid timeline of the visa action once officials learned of Telizhenko’s planned Senate interview.