By Gina Tedesca
The fallout from the FBI’s secret “Round River” operation may be about to cross the Atlantic.
Newly declassified documents have exposed how the FBI received damaging information about the Biden family’s Ukraine dealings from 14 different informants while simultaneously running a counterintelligence operation that categorized prominent conservatives investigating those allegations as potential conduits of Russian disinformation.
The Gateway Pundit reported on the bombshell revelations last week.
But the American scandal could have consequences far beyond Washington. European politicians targeted by another explosive “Russian influence” scandal immediately before the 2024 European Parliament elections are now raising questions about striking similarities between the two cases. Parties affected by the European affair are pushing for a parliamentary investigation into possible election interference.
The central question is explosive: Was the same “Russian disinformation” playbook used in Europe? And could documents now being released in Washington help uncover what really happened before the 2024 EU elections?
From Washington to Brussels
The Round River documents provide a disturbing example of the enormous political power held by intelligence agencies during an election campaign. According to the newly released material reported by The Gateway Pundit, the FBI and U.S. intelligence agencies received derogatory information concerning the Biden family from 14 different informants. Yet the FBI created a system that classified prominent Democrats including Joe Biden, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton as potential “targets” of Russian disinformation, while conservatives investigating the Biden family’s Ukraine dealings were listed as potential “conduits.”
Among those classified as conduits were some of the most powerful officials and lawmakers in Washington, including then-Attorney General Bill Barr, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Senators Chuck Grassley and Ron Johnson, and Congressman Jim Jordan. Journalists and conservative media organizations investigating Hunter Biden and Burisma also appeared in the intelligence framework.
The distinction is crucial. The scandal is not merely about whether individual reports concerning the Bidens were ultimately true or false. It concerns the ability of intelligence agencies to determine how politically explosive information is categorized and presented during an election. A damaging report can be investigated as potential evidence, or it can be placed under the umbrella of a foreign disinformation operation. Those decisions can have enormous consequences for politicians, journalists, technology companies and ultimately voters.
Four years after the 2020 U.S. election, Europe experienced its own spectacular “Russian influence” scandal. Once again, intelligence information was at the center of the story. Once again, politicians challenging the political establishment were targeted. And once again, the allegations exploded immediately before voters went to the polls.
Europe’s Own Russian Influence Bombshell
In the spring of 2024, reports about an alleged Russian influence network centered around the Prague-based media platform Voice of Europe swept across European media. Czech authorities claimed that the platform formed part of an operation designed to spread Russian influence in Europe, and politicians from several European countries were subsequently linked in media reports to the alleged network.
The timing could hardly have been more politically sensitive. Europeans were preparing to elect a new European Parliament, while right-wing and anti-establishment parties were gaining ground across the continent. Within weeks of the election, allegations involving Russian money, intelligence operations and supposedly compromised politicians dominated headlines in several countries.
One of the politicians hit hardest was German AfD European Parliament candidate Petr Bystron. Media reports alleged that Bystron had accepted money connected to Voice of Europe. The accusation rapidly became an international story and followed him throughout the closing phase of the election campaign. German authorities launched an extensive investigation and conducted repeated searches.
More than two years later, however, the original allegation concerning Russian payments has still not produced a corresponding conviction. Bystron says authorities have now carried out 29 searches against him without finding evidence substantiating the central allegation that he accepted Russian money.
Whatever the eventual legal outcome, the political consequences did not wait for prosecutors or courts. The accusations were already everywhere when Europeans went to vote.
Political Damage Does Not Wait for a Court Verdict
This is precisely where the Round River revelations become relevant to the European case. Intelligence agencies do not need to alter ballots to affect an election. They possess another extraordinarily powerful instrument: information. They collect it, classify it, determine which agencies receive it, decide whether it is treated as credible or potentially hostile propaganda and communicate with other governments, journalists and technology companies.
Timing magnifies that power. If an explosive allegation appears three weeks before an election, it can dominate the entire closing phase of a campaign. Determining whether the allegation was accurate may take investigators three years. By then, the election is over, governments have been formed and parliamentary seats have been distributed.
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That problem was demonstrated dramatically during the Hunter Biden laptop controversy. The FBI had possessed Hunter Biden’s laptop since 2019. Yet when the New York Post published material from the laptop shortly before the 2020 presidential election, the story appeared against a backdrop of repeated warnings about Russian election interference and potential foreign disinformation.
Twitter temporarily prevented users from sharing the New York Post article and locked the newspaper’s account. Facebook reduced distribution of the story while it awaited further verification. The laptop and substantial portions of its contents were subsequently authenticated by major American news organizations.
The Round River documents now raise new questions about what the intelligence community itself was doing during that period. European politicians want to know whether their own election experienced a variation of the same phenomenon.
Petr Bystron and the Voice of Europe Affair
The case of Petr Bystron could therefore become central to any European investigation. At the time the Voice of Europe allegations emerged, Bystron was a prominent AfD candidate seeking election to the European Parliament. The accusations did not arrive after Election Day, when prosecutors could investigate them without immediately affecting voters. They arrived during the decisive final weeks of the campaign.
The effect was immediate. Instead of campaigning exclusively on immigration, the European Union, the economy and other issues, Bystron and his party were forced to respond to allegations portraying him as potentially connected to a Russian influence network. The accusation itself became the political event.
This distinction matters because the burden of proof in a criminal investigation and the burden required to create a media scandal are completely different. Prosecutors ultimately need evidence. Headlines only require allegations considered sufficiently newsworthy to publish. When intelligence services are the source of those allegations, they arrive with an additional aura of authority.
The broader European right also came under pressure during the scandal. Some smaller parties affected by the wider controversy failed to clear electoral thresholds. The right-wing Identity and Democracy group ultimately received 58 seats, significantly below some optimistic pre-election projections that had placed it around 85.
That difference does not prove that intelligence activity determined the election result. But it demonstrates why the timing of intelligence disclosures deserves investigation. By the time anyone establishes whether an allegation was exaggerated, misleading or entirely accurate, voters have already made their decision.
Czech Intelligence Service Faces Questions
The European affair also contains an important intelligence dimension that could become particularly interesting as more American documents are released. Much of the intelligence behind the Voice of Europe scandal originated in the Czech Republic, where the Security Information Service, known as BIS, played a central role in identifying the alleged Russian influence network.
The service’s longtime director Michal Koudelka has since become the subject of political controversy inside the Czech Republic. Former Czech intelligence insider Jan Schneider has accused the BIS under Koudelka of moving beyond its proper intelligence role and influencing public opinion through selective information provided to journalists.
Koudelka also has longstanding connections with the American intelligence establishment. In 2019, the CIA awarded him the George Tenet Medal.
That fact by itself does not establish any American involvement in the Voice of Europe affair. Nor is there currently public evidence establishing that Operation Round River itself operated in Europe or targeted European politicians. But the newly revealed American operation gives investigators an obvious reason to examine how closely Western intelligence agencies coordinated their work on alleged Russian influence operations.
Were Czech intelligence officials acting entirely independently? Which allied intelligence services received information concerning Voice of Europe? Was intelligence about Bystron or other European politicians shared with U.S. agencies? Did American agencies provide information to their European counterparts? And were any analytical procedures resembling those exposed in the Round River documents used when European politicians were categorized as participants in Russian influence operations?
Those are questions that can be answered through records rather than speculation.
A previous report examining allegations surrounding the Czech intelligence service and the 2024 European election can be found here:
EU Election Manipulation: Czech Intelligence Chief Must Go
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