Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin filed a complaint with Ukraine’s National Bureau of Investigation this week demanding that an investigation be launched against former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
Confirmations of this filing have been obtained by the Russian news site RT, the left-wing American news site Talking Points Memo, the Interfax-Ukraine News Agency and an obscure French news site known Les Crises.
The original filing may be seen below:
According to a translation by Les Crises, in the filing Shokin accuses Biden of having orchestrated his controversial 2016 removal from office to prevent him from completing his investigation into the corruption-linked natural gas company Burisma.
“During the period 2014-2016, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine was conducting a preliminary investigation into a series of serious crimes committed by the former Minister of Ecology of Ukraine Mykola Zlotchevsky and by the managers of the company ‘Burisma Holding Limited’ (Cyprus), the board of directors of which included, among others, Hunter Biden, son of Joseph Biden, then vice-president of the United States of America,” the document reportedly reads.
Despite the investigation being “carried out in strict accordance with Criminal Law,” Biden allegedly “developed a firmly hostile attitude towards” Shokin, it continues.
“Owing to my firm position on the above-mentioned cases regarding their prompt and objective investigation, which should have resulted in the arrest and the indictment of the guilty parties, Joseph Biden developed a firmly hostile attitude towards me which led him to express in private conversations with senior Ukrainian officials, as well as in his public speeches, a categorical request for my immediate dismissal from the post of Attorney General of Ukraine in exchange for the sum of US $ 1 billion in as a financial guarantee from the United States for the benefit of Ukraine.”
Fact-check: TRUE.
Biden openly admitted to the “categorical request” (or threat, as some have called it) while speaking at a Council on Foreign Relations event two years ago.
“I said, ‘you’re not getting the billion’ … I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money.’ Well, son of a b****, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” he admitted.
That prosecutor was Shokin.
Listen:
“Throughout the last months of 2015 and the first months of 2016 Joseph Biden, taking advantage of his position, came several times on official visits to Ukraine in order to negotiate with the leaders of the country my eviction and, consequently, the closing of the objective investigation into the offenses committed by persons associated with the company ‘Burisma Holding Limited’ (Cyprus), including the son of the aforementioned US official,” Shokin’s filing continues.
“Due to continued pressure from the Vice President of the United States Joseph Biden to oust me from the job by blackmailing the allocation of financial assistance, I, as the man who places the State interests above my personal interests, I agreed to abandon the post of Prosecutor General of Ukraine.”
Afterward, he further claims, the “active investigation” into Burisma was dropped and “the persons implicated in these offenses were not identified, nor arrested or charged.”
Fact-check: TRUE.
It’s long been alleged, though not yet proven (in part allegedly because of Shokin’s forced removal from office) that Biden’s son Hunter is directly linked to Burisma’s corruption. In fact, even his employment by the firm has been seen as sketchy.
When the 2014 Ukrainian revolution broke out, then-VP Biden traveled to Kiev to work with the new government. But three weeks after his arrival, Burisma hired his son Hunter. It was shocking given Hunter’s track record and lack of experience
According to ABC News reporter Tom Llamas, the alleged lifelong womanizer and cocaine addict suddenly went from being “discharged from the Navy Reserves for testing positive for cocaine” to earning “more than a million dollars a year.”
Learn more below:
Shokin continues his filing by asserting that Biden’s quid pro quo “represents interference in the internal affairs of Ukraine on the part of a foreign power in violation of one of the principles of international law.”
“Thus, the unlawful influence exerted on me as the head of a judicial structure in the country by Joseph Biden, who abused his power as the Vice-President of the United States in order to prevent me from carrying out my duties as the Prosecutor General of Ukraine, thus preventing me from solving serious crimes and arresting the persons who committed those crimes, has the characteristics of the crime stipulated in Article 343 part 2 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine,” he writes.
And so based on these facts, Shokin concludes, an investigation ought to be launched immediately to look into Biden.
On the same day that word of Shokin’s filing emerged, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz introduced a question in President Donald Trump’s trial about this very matter:
(1/4) My 7th #impeachment question w @HawleyMO, @SteveDaines, @SenatorBraun: “When he took office, Viktor Shokin, Ukraine’s Prosecutor General, filed to investigate #Burisma before Vice President Joe Biden pressed Ukrainian officials on corruption …
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 30, 2020
(2/4) … including pushing for the removal of Shokin. Did the White House Counsel’s Office or the Office of the Vice President Legal Counsel issue ethics advice approving Mr. Biden’s involvement in matters involving corruption in Ukraine or Shokin…
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 30, 2020
(3/4) … despite the presence of Hunter Biden on the board of Burisma, a company widely considered to be corrupt? Did Vice President Biden ever ask Hunter Biden to step down from the board of Burisma?”
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 30, 2020
(4/4) ANSWER: No – despite receiving warnings about the potential appearance of a conflict of interest from advisors. pic.twitter.com/75a9OIP1wP
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) January 30, 2020
The question matters because the president’s team has long claimed that Trump’s request last summer to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that he look into Biden’s activities was based on legitimate concerns about the former VP’s alleged corruption.
Cruz and his Republican colleagues are now facing criticism from congressional Democrats and their media allies for asking such questions. To hear them tell it, Shokin was the bad guy and Biden and his son were the good guys.
Look:
Every legitimate institution in the world has stated that Viktor Shokin was not only not investigating Burisma he was protecting Burisma. Only Trumps lawyers believe otherwise. They know better and they are lying to you. Biden’s actions made Burisma vulnerable. The truth.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) January 29, 2020
It’s remakeble that in their questions GOP senators continue to state as fact that Shokin was investigating Burisma when he was fired. All available evidence shows this is false. And it’s obviously a pretty material lie for Cruz and other to continue asserting.
— Josh Marshall (@joshtpm) January 29, 2020
It’s amazing to see Trump’s lawyers repeat the lie about Biden and Shokin, over and over, on the Senate floor. It’s a debunked conspiracy. The Burisma probe was dormant. Yes, Biden pushed a QPQ but it was for legitimate US interests. That’s what all the witnesses said under oath.
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) January 30, 2020
House Manager Demings says “the entire free world” pressed for Shokin’s office “to be cleaned up.” Big assertion!!! Actually, it’s basically true. (Bipartisan support in the US, wide backing in Europe, an endorsement from the IMF, general support on the Ukrainian streets, etc.)
— Marshall Cohen (@MarshallCohen) January 30, 2020
Say it with me now: the whole world (including Biden) thought Viktor Shokin was corrupt BECAUSE HE WOULDN’T INVESTIGATE BURISMA
The situation is exactly the OPPOSITE of what the president and his lawyers are saying, and them doubling and tripling down on this lie is inexplicable
— Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) January 30, 2020
But if this is the case, then why was nobody at Burisma ever charged?
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V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.
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