The prosecutor at the core of the Democrat-driven Ukraine saga told Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani he was instructed to back off the investigation into Burisma Holdings, which Hunter Biden served on the board of, according to notes obtained by Fox News.
Details of Giuliani’s interview with former Ukraine prosecutor Viktor Shokin affirm Shokin was told to halt his investigation into Burisma Holdings, which Hunter Biden served on the board of, due to the vice president’s actions. The former prosecutor indicated that the “investigations stopped out of fear of the United States.”
“Mr. Shokin attempted to continue the investigations but on or around June or July of 2015, the U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt told him that the investigation has to be handled with white gloves, which according to Mr. Shokin, that implied do nothing,” notes from Giuliani’s January interview with Shokin read.
“There were requests for information on Hunter Biden to which nothing was received,” the notes continued. “It is believed that Hunter Biden receives a salary, commission plus one million dollars.”
“There were no documents or information on Hunter Biden, and Mr. Shokin stated he was warned to stop by Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt,” Giuliani noted:
“President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko told Mr. Shokin not to investigate Burisma as it was not in the interest of Joe and/or Hunter Biden. Mr. Shokin was called into Mr. Poroshenko’s office and told that the investigation into Burisma and the Managing Director where Hunter Biden is on the board, has caused Joe Biden to hold up one billion dollars in U.S. aid to Ukraine.”
Shokin then told Giuliani, according to the notes, that “in or around April of 2016” Poroshenko “told him he had to be fired as the aid to the Ukraine was being withheld by Joe Biden.”
Shokin, who faced accusations of corruption at the time, left his post in April 2016. His successor, Yuriy Lutsenko, ultimately closed the investigation.
While Democrats are chasing an impeachment inquiry based on President Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky– a phone call which did not show any sort of wrongdoing on quid pro quo– Joe Biden’s actions remain at the center of the controversy.
His son, Hunter, joined the oil and natural gas company Burisma Holdings in 2014, taking in tens of thousands of dollars per month for legal services.
As Breitbart News reported, “The appointment immediately raised questions from ethics watchdogs in both the U.S. and Europe about the true nature of his role, since he possessed no background in either the energy industry or Ukraine.”
While House Democrats are accusing Trump of “pressuring” Zelensky to investigate a political opponent and ultimately using that accusation as a catalyst for the impeachment inquiry, it was Biden who pressed the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin, who was probing Burisma Holdings at the time. Biden threatened to withhold U.S. aid over the prosecutor’s firing and bragged about it during a January 2018 appearance at the Council of Foreign Relations.
“I said, I’m telling you, you’re not getting the billion dollars. I said, you’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours,” Biden said.
“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 bitch. He got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time,” he added:
Biden’s admission spurs further ethical questions– particularly if Hunter Biden did, in fact, benefit from his father’s influence. However, the Biden campaign continues to deny wrongdoing on the former vice president’s behalf.
“The substance of President Trump and Rudy Giuliani’s claims has been roundly discredited,” Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield claimed.
“This is not a claim from the campaign or Joe Biden,” she added, calling it an “irrefutable fact.”
Nonetheless, Biden’s conflict of interest has remained largely ignored by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and her impeachment-driven counterparts
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