Ex-Prosecutor General of Ukraine Viktor Shokin said the investigation against Burisma, where the son of former United States Vice President Joe Biden, was terminated “out of fear of the United States”, Fox News said.
The channel refers to the recordings of President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph Giuliani, who met with Shokin in January 2019. Similar documents were transferred to the Congress by the Inspector General of the State Department, the television channel specified. Joe Biden is one of the contenders in the 2020 presidential race.
Earlier, Congressional Democrats began the process of impeaching Trump, suspecting him for personal political purposes of seeking the Ukrainian leadership to investigate Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who worked for Burisma.
“Mr. Shokin tried to continue the investigation, but approximately in June-July 2015, the US ambassador (to Ukraine) Jeffrey Payette told him that the investigation should be approached “in white gloves”. According to Mr. Shokin, this meant – do nothing”, – said in the notes of Giuliani.
The channel recalls that the US authorities accused Shokin of corruption. Biden publicly boasted that he had secured his dismissal from the Ukrainian authorities.
Shokin also said that he requested information about Hunter Biden, but did not receive a response from the Ukrainian authorities. According to him, Hunter Biden received, in addition to his salary and commissions, a million dollar bonus when he was a member of the Burisma board of directors.
Also, Shokin pointed out that ex-president Petro Poroshenko fired him, “because Joe Biden was delaying aid to Ukraine”. Biden Sr. himself in a public statement earlier confirmed that he had threatened authorities in Kiev that they would not receive US financial support, including guarantees for a billion-dollar loan, if they did not fire Shokin.
In addition, Shokin said that Payett’s successor at the embassy post in Kiev, Marie Jovanovic, denied him a visa to the United States, and said that it was rigged by Joe Biden.
The channel received new documents from sources familiar with the briefing by the State Department’s independent supervisory body for members of the congress, which was conducted by State Department inspector general Steve Linick. Earlier, congressional committees requested information from the State Department regarding Trump’s alleged pressure on the Ukrainian authorities.
The situation around the Burisma Group was in the spotlight after a telephone conversation of President Trump with Vladimir Zelensky of Ukraine, about which an unnamed intelligence officer complained to his leadership.
After that, the White House unveiled a transcript of the telephone conversation. The transcript confirmed that Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the circumstances of Shokin’s dismissal.