Overview
- Declassification by the White House Transparency Task Force on Wednesday, August 12, 2026 made public an ODNI slide deck and a spreadsheet that list roughly 70 people the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force — Russia labeled either “conduits” of foreign influence or “targets” of it.
- The ODNI review included in the release concluded the Round River team did not corroborate the underlying Ukraine-related allegations and did not assess whether those claims were factually true.
- Round River was created inside the FITF‑R in December 2019 and operated through the 2020 election and possibly into 2021 to gather and flag confidential human source reporting about the Bidens and Ukraine.
- FBI Director Kash Patel says he dismantled the FITF team, has opened an internal probe into whether Round River influenced or undermined other investigations, and offered to turn over source reporting tied to at least 53 identified confidential human sources, 14 of whom reported derogatory Biden information.
- The documents have sparked sharply divided media and political reactions, with right‑leaning outlets highlighting the files and officials warning that the disclosures could trigger congressional oversight, further document releases, and renewed debate over how intelligence offices label foreign‑influence material during election periods.