Newly declassified US intelligence documents suggest that, in 2022, Ukrainian officials discussed a plan to divert hundreds of millions of dollars in American taxpayer funds—originally earmarked for clean energy projects—towards supporting Joe Biden’s 2024 presidential campaign and the Democratic National Committee, according to a report by Just the News.
The alleged scheme, based on a summary of intercepted communications, outlined the use of a US-funded infrastructure project in Ukraine as a cover mechanism. According to the intercepts, officials discussed structuring the project so that it would initially receive approval and funding, but later be deemed unnecessary—by which point the funds would already have been allocated and difficult to recover.
The plan reportedly involved routing money through US-based subcontractors and complex contractual arrangements designed to obscure the origin and final destination of the funds.
‘The intercepted communications were not thoroughly investigated during the Biden administration and are not believed to be linked to Russian disinformation’
The declassified summary also alleges that USAID channels in Kyiv were central to the mechanism, with both Ukrainian and unspecified US government personnel reportedly involved in designing the funding structure. The intercepts suggest that up to 90 per cent of the allocated funds could have been redirected in a manner that would make tracing the transfers difficult.
According to the article, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has ordered a review, instructing USAID to determine whether the plan was ever implemented and whether the case warrants a criminal referral to the FBI. Officials cited in the report also claim that the intercepted communications were not thoroughly investigated during the Biden administration and are not believed to be linked to Russian disinformation.
The article was shared by US President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account without further comment. US billionaire Elon Musk, who served as the former director of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)—an agency tasked with overseeing and reducing USAID-related foreign spending—did the same on X.
Different Election, Same Interference?
If proven true, this would constitute clear interference in the US presidential race by Ukraine, a country that was heavily supported by Washington both financially and militarily at the time. The story carries particular resonance in Hungary, where Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government have accused the opposition Tisza party of cooperating with Ukrainian intelligence and security services to influence the outcome of the upcoming high-stakes election scheduled for 12 April.
On the same day the story broke in the US, Orbán called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to ‘immediately order his agents to return home’, claiming that Hungary has turned into ‘an operational area for the Ukrainian secret service’. Orbán also said that there has never been an election in Hungary in which ‘foreign intelligence services have interfered’ on such a scale. He accused the opposition Tisza party of being a revolving door for ‘Ukrainian spies’, referring to a recently declassified intelligence briefing claiming that IT specialists linked to Tisza have connections to the so-called IT Army of Ukraine and the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest.
These accusations form part of an increasingly turbulent intelligence and information war surrounding the upcoming election, which consists of two entirely contradictory narratives: the government’s claim of an EU–Ukraine-orchestrated plot to overthrow Orbán and install a leadership aligned with Brussels and Kyiv; and, on the other side, accusations by the opposition and Western media, alongside certain European intelligence services, that Orbán is cooperating with Russia to influence the outcome of the vote and leaking confidential EU information to Moscow.
The Ministry of Justice has recently moved to file a criminal complaint on suspicion of espionage against journalist Szabolcs Panyi. Panyi is at the centre of the information war surrounding the election. In early March, he claimed that Russian military intelligence officers had been deployed in Budapest to support Orbán’s campaign. The story was quickly picked up and amplified by Western media outlets and has served as a basis for further claims of Russian interference in the election.
On Monday, in a leaked audio recording, Panyi discussed sharing Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó’s contact details with an unnamed foreign intelligence service and referenced links to Tisza party foreign policy expert Anita Orbán. Panyi did not reject the authenticity of the recording; however, he claimed that it was part of a smear campaign against him. The government has ordered an investigation into what it described as the wiretapping of one of its ministers.
Government officials have also claimed that Panyi is linked to a Western media and NGO network funded through USAID, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED)—a US government-funded NGO often described as Washington’s ‘regime change machine’—and the European Union.
On Wednesday, 25 March, the Hungarian government published a report detailing what it describes as a coordinated system of foreign political influence linked to US government funding, particularly through USAID and affiliated organizations. The report, compiled under government commissioner László András, alleges that American resources were channelled to selected Hungarian actors via intermediary networks and multi-layered regional programmes in a manner designed to obscure both the origin and the purpose of the funds—similarly to what is alleged in the Ukraine–Biden case.
According to the findings, these mechanisms followed a broader international pattern, with financing flowing through institutions such as USAID, the US State Department, NED, and other organizations, often through indirect and difficult-to-trace structures. The report claims that these funds were used to exert political pressure and influence domestic processes, including during and after the Hungarian parliamentary election in 2022, with total funding potentially reaching or exceeding $100 million.
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