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Report: Former Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin Swore Biden’s Pressure Led to His Firing

Report: Former Ukrainian Prosecutor Viktor Shokin Swore Biden’s Pressure Led to His Firing

Shokin: “Therefore, I was forced to leave office, under direct and intense pressure from Joe Biden and the US administration.”

John Solomon, the executive VP at The Hill, downloaded explosive documents on Thursday that contradict Vide President Joe Biden’s story on Ukraine.

Biden insists he pressured then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to fire top prosecutor Viktor Shokin because of allegations of corruption.

However, Shokin swore in a statement that Biden’s true motive lied in his investigation into Burisma Holdings. Biden’s son Hunter sat on the company’s board.

History

I covered the Ukraine/Russia war at Breitbart from 2013 when Ukrainians spawned Euromaidan until I left in May 2016 to join Legal Insurrection.

I have kept up with Ukraine, which remains dear to my heart.

Everyone who covered the beat knew of Shokin’s supposed corruption. It is true that other European leaders also wanted Shokin out. They all viewed Shokin as a hindrance to Ukraine’s path to a straight and narrow government.

In 2012, the then-Ukrainian prosecutor began an investigation into Mykola Zlochevsky, the owner of Burisma Holdings. Zlochevsky is a close ally of former Ukrainian Viktor Yanukovych, the man ousted in February 2014 due to his closeness with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The investigation occurred due to allegations of money laundering, tax evasion, and corruption:

Mr. Zlochevsky was removed from the post in April 2012 and appointed deputy secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, a role he held until Mr. Yanukovych’s government collapsed in late February. During his tenure as a government minister, Burisma and entities associated with the firm received a large number of permits for oil and gas exploration in Ukraine and stepped up their output considerably, according to Ukrainian press reports.

In 2014, Biden’s son Hunter and then-Secretary of State John Kerry’s family friend Devon Archer joined Burisma’s board of directors. This happened right after President Barack Obama appointed Biden to oversee the relationship between America and the new Ukrainian government.

Hunter believed his appointment could weed out the corruption within Burisma:

“Burisma’s track record of innovations and industry leadership in the field of natural gas means that it can be a strong driver of a strong economy in Ukraine,” Hunter Biden said in the statement on Burisma’s website. “As a new member of the Board, I believe that my assistance in consulting the Company on matters of transparency, corporate governance and responsibility, international expansion and other priorities will contribute to the economy and benefit the people of Ukraine.”

President Barack Obama’s administration vowed there was no conflict of interest.

Shokin became prosecutor general in 2015 and continued the investigation. But as I said above, Obama’s administration plus other European leaders did not think Shokin showed enough effort into the Burisma and Zlochevsky investigation.

Obama’s administration became so frustrated that they wanted to launch their own investigation into Burisma and Zlochevsky.

Ukraine’s parliament dismissed Shokin in 2016.

Fast Forward to 2019

Back in April, Solomon wrote that Biden supposedly bragged that he drove Poroshenko to fire Shokin. That pressure included a threat to withhold $1 billion in aid:

“I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. I looked at them and said: ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden recalled telling Poroshenko.

“Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations event, insisting that President Obama was in on the threat.

Interviews with a half-dozen senior Ukrainian officials confirm Biden’s account, though they claim the pressure was applied over several months in late 2015 and early 2016, not just six hours of one dramatic day. Whatever the case, Poroshenko and Ukraine’s parliament obliged by ending Shokin’s tenure as prosecutor. Shokin was facing steep criticism in Ukraine, and among some U.S. officials, for not bringing enough corruption prosecutions when he was fired.

Solomon’s report did not catch much steam when it came out. It has shot into the spotlight due to President Donald Trump’s phone call with new Ukranian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Before the transcript came out, the left claimed Trump threatened Zelensky he would withhold aid if he did not investigate Biden.

Instead, Trump suggested to Zelensky he investigate Biden without threatening any negative action towards Ukraine.

Some have tried to remind the left and the media about Biden’s brag over Shokin. Many media outlets have tried to deny this happened, but video captured Biden’s statements:

Do you know what else I find hilarious? Media outlets pointed out a conflict of interest with Biden’s appointment to Burisma Holdings. Max Seddon at BuzzFeed admitted it raised “serious conflict of interest questions for Western countries’ Ukraine policy.” Others felt the same way:

US foreign policy is often perceived abroad as a selfish exercise to further economic interests, largely driven by a huge energy demand, and Biden’s commitment to Burisma – Ukraine’s largest private gas supplier – seems to confirm the suspicion.

The Washington Post article described Biden’s behavior as “nefarious.” Observers’ tweets cited in the piece argued the situation “looks really bad. What are they thinking?” while others were simply “speechless.” According to the Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, Burisma is controlled by a confidant of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

Shokin’s Statement

Before I start with this section, I have to say that it is hard who to believe: Biden or Shokin. There are red flags over Biden, but the fact is Shokin is corrupt. He even disgusted me and he would have a grudge over his firing.

Solomon got ahold of Shokin’s sworn statements about his firing. He reported:

Ukrainian prosecutors say they have tried to get this information to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) since the summer of 2018, fearing it might be evidence of possible violations of U.S. ethics laws. First, they hired a former federal prosecutor to bring the information to the U.S. attorney in New York, who, they say, showed no interest. Then, the Ukrainians reached out to President Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, told Trump in July that he plans to launch his own wide-ranging investigation into what happened with the Bidens and Burisma.

“I’m knowledgeable about the situation,” Zelensky told Trump, asking the American president to forward any evidence he might know about. “The issue of the investigation of the case is actually the issue of making sure to restore the honesty so we will take care of that and will work on the investigation of the case.”

As you can tell that backs up Zelensky’s statement. It looks like Ukraine really did want to get to the bottom of the Burisma investigation.

Here is the key point in the document:

https://www.scribd.com/document/427618359/Shokin-Statement

Solomon left a key point out of his op-ed. Shokin said he made “this statement at the requests of lawyers acting for Dmitry Firtash (“DF”), for use in legal proceedings in Austria.” It looks like Shokin provided the statement to explain why he did not, as general prosecutor, pursue Firtash for alleged crimes in Ukraine or America in an effort to stop Austria from extraditing Firtash to America. You can read about those allegations in this report at Reuters.

Here is the full statement:

Shokin Statement by JohnSolomon on Scribd

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Comments

Crickets from the left…..

It’s okay because Bidend wasn’t asking for a favor.

We know,because joe biden told us.

Looking for corruption in the Wrong places is evidence of corruption, y’see.

NPR Morning Edition. Listen to the audio.

https://www.npr.org/2019/09/27/764967682/in-ukraine-rudy-giulianis-story-does-not-hold-up

ANDRII BOROVYK: There were lots of demands from different international stakeholders to fire Shokin because of his failure of managing to reform and changing the Soviet-style prosecutor’s office.

KIM: Daria Kaleniuk is the head of Kyiv’s Anti-Corruption Centre, which Giuliani has also attacked as a nonprofit run by U.S. financier George Soros. While Kaleniuk’s organization gets some money from Soros, it’s mostly funded by Western governments, including the U.S., and has investigated the company Hunter Biden worked for. But all the accusations of the company’s wrongdoing stem from the time before Hunter Biden. Kaleniuk says the whole reason Biden was hired was an attempt to clean up the company’s image with a big name

4th armored div | September 27, 2019 at 5:51 pm

Biden behavior was too much for Obama to support for POTUS.

Okay Mary, here is the problem.

The timeline raises a very strong suspicion that Hunter Biden’s appointment to Barisma was, at least, influenced by the naming or VPOTUS Joe Biden as the lead for US-Ukrainian relations, especially in the arena of corruption.

H. Biden was appointed to the board in 2014, right after the new government came in in Ukraine and right after his father was named led in US-Ukraine relations. He was on the Barisma board in 2016, when his father supposedly forces thee Ukraine to fire the prosecutor. He continued to occupy his position on the board, until this year, when Joe declares his candidacy. Durng that period, he receives a huge salary.

Now, faced with that timeline, any investigator, including the late Inspector Clouseau, would be suspicious that J. Biden’s actions were not strictly done on behalf of the US, as they might well have benefited his son. So, it appears that an investigation would justified. Now, is it possible that the investigation would reveal that there was either no attempt to benefit H. Biden, there was such an attempt or that there is not enough evidence to make a binding determination. The reason for the investigation is because we have no way to make such a determination from the information available.

So, where to go with thi investigation. First start with H. Biden. How much money passed through his hands from Barisma and its officers? Where did it go? How much stuck to Hunter’s hands? How much of that is accounted for by his “salary”? If there is any evidence of illegality on Hunter’s part, then the investigation moves into area of did his father have any knowledge of possible questionable or illegal activities on the part of hi son. If so, does any evidence exist that this knowledge influenced his reported threat to deny a US aid package if the prosecutor, investigating Barisma, was not removed. It might turn out that there is no “there”, there. Then again, the opposite might happen.

    Milhouse in reply to Mac45. | September 29, 2019 at 7:43 am

    I see no reason to suspect that Hunter Biden got more than his “salary”. That seems quite sufficient to pay for his role. But what was that role? Ostensibly it was blah blah transparency blah blah good governance blah blah — meaningless twaddle in which he had no apparent competence; that alone should tell us that it wasn’t what they were really paying him for. Since his only apparent asset was his name, it makes sense that that was what they were buying with his salary. And it’s reasonable to suppose that the name came with an insurance policy, which is sufficient to explain Joe’s actions.

    The problem of course is proving any of this, and looking for any extra money that came Hunter’s way may not be fruitful, because it’s reasonable to suppose he didn’t get anything extra. I guess they should look just in case, but I expect they’ll find nothing and then pretend that exonerates him.

      But, we have allegations, granted from Giuliani, that additional money was funneled through outside channels, which may have been facilitated by Hunter. If true, did any of that money stick to Biden’s hands? Good question. Now a $600,000 a yer “salary” might well be sufficient compensation for this activity. However, that is a lot of money to pay for a figurehead on the board. Especially when you consider that Hunter occupied that position for over two years after his father was out of office.

      As to proving any of this, that is really unnecessary. It is likely that neither Hinter Biden nor Joe Biden violated any US laws. And, it would be a waste of time and a energy to actually attempt to bring charges in the matter. But, if this was blatant corruption, both public and private, then exposure is well warranted.

Lyndsey Graham …. grow a pair and start issuing subpoenas to match House subpoenas one-for-one. Stop being so damn nice. Subpoena Biden. Subpoena 0bama.

Change the last name to Trump and the son’s name to Don or Eric. What do you think would be all over the media at this point?

Mary Chastain wrote,

But as I said above, Obama’s administration plus other European leaders did not think Shokin showed enough effort into the Burisma and Zlochevsky investigation.

Obama’s administration became so frustrated that they wanted to launch their own investigation into Burisma and Zlochevsky.

That would indicate that Hunter Biden’s being on Burisma’s board of directors did not reduce the Obama administration’s desire to have Burisma investigated.

Is there any evidence that the Obama administration changed its mind in this regard?

Mary Chastain wrote,

But as I said above, Obama’s administration plus other European leaders did not think Shokin showed enough effort into the Burisma and Zlochevsky investigation.

Obama’s administration became so frustrated that they wanted to launch their own investigation into Burisma and Zlochevsky.

That would indicate that Hunter Biden’s being on Burisma’s board of directors did not reduce the Obama administration’s desire to have Burisma investigated.

Is there any evidence that the Obama administration changed its mind in this regard?