Fact Check: Biden Claims Giuliani Is ‘Being Fed Information That Is Russian’

CLAIM: Former Vice President Joe Biden claimed that Rudy Giuliani, who was involved in providing information to the New York Post shedding light on ties between the Biden family and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, was being “fed information” from Russia “that is not true.”

VERDICT: FALSE

“We are in a situation where we have foreign countries trying to interfere in the outcome of the election,” Biden said at Thursday’s presidential debate. “His own national security advisor told him that what is happening with his buddy — well, I won’t, I shouldn’t get, well I will — his buddy, Rudy Giuliani, he’s being used as a Russian pawn. He’s being fed information that is Russian that is not true.”

Claims that Rudy Giuliani has been “fed information” from the Russians have never been substantiated. Media outlets reported that Giuliani was warned by National Security Advisor Robert O’Brian that he was the target of a “Russian influence operation” in 2019, but these claims are based on anonymous sources, and Breitbart News has been unable to verify them.

The intelligence community has specifically debunked allegations that the material on Hunter Biden’s laptop that was passed to the New York Post by Giuliani is “Russian disinformation.” The current Director of National Intelligence, John Ratcliffe, refuted this claim in an interview on Monday with Fox Business Network host Maria Bartiromo.

Ratcliffe said, “It is funny that some of the people that complain the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing intelligence. And, unfortunately, in this case, it is Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, who, as you pointed out, said on Friday the intelligence community believes that Hunter Biden’s laptop and the emails on it are part of some Russian disinformation campaign.”

He continued, “Let me be clear: The intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. We have shared no intelligence with chairman Adam Schiff or any other member of Congress that Hunter Biden’s laptop is part of some Russian disinformation campaign. It’s simply not true.”