Finally SOMEONE takes the time to Interview Ukrainian Prosecutor Shokin to find out WHY he was Investigating Burisma and Hunter Biden and Why Joe had to get him Fired!
by Thomas Catenacci and Thomas Phippen, FoxNews, August 27, 2023
In an exclusive interview with Fox News, former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin detailed the involvement he believed President Biden, the then-vice president, played in his firing and how it involved Hunter Biden's business dealings.
During the interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade, Shokin said he was ousted in 2016 because he was investigating Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company where Hunter Biden served on the board. Shokin also claimed that Joe and Hunter Biden accepted bribes in the case, and that the then-vice president ultimately hurt America's reputation and created the groundwork for Russia to invade Ukraine.
"I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma," Shokin told Fox News in the interview which aired Saturday evening.
"You understood me correctly, this is how it was," he added after a follow-up question from Kilmeade about Biden's involvement. "There were no complaints whatsoever and no problems with how I was performing at my job. But because pressure was repeatedly put on [then-Ukrainian President Petro] Poroshenko, that is what ended up in him firing me."
Shokin did not provide additional evidence of his claim that the Bidens accepted bribes or elaborate on the allegation.
In March 2016, Poroshenko ousted Shokin, who was appointed one year earlier, after facing pressure from the U.S. government. The international community, led by the U.S. and then-Vice President Biden who led U.S.-Ukraine policy, believed Shokin was allowing corruption to fester in the nation's government and his own office.
In December 2015, Biden traveled to Kyiv, Ukraine, where he demanded Poroshenko root out corruption and fire Shokin, threatening to withhold a key U.S. aid package. During a speech delivered with the country's leaders present, Biden said the Office of the General Prosecutor "desperately needs reform" and warned about the dangers posed by corruption in the government.
Biden urged Ukrainian president to fire Shokin
A year after leaving the White House, Biden recounted his closed-door conversations with Poroshenko during the 2015 trip. He explained how he told Ukrainian officials the U.S. would withhold up to $1 billion in aid money earmarked for their country if Shokin remained in his position.
"I said, ‘Nah, I’m not going to – we’re not going to give you the billion dollars.’ They said, ‘You have no authority. You’re not the president. The president said –.' I said, ‘Call him,’" Biden recounted during a January 2018 event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. "I said, ‘I’m telling you, you’re not getting the $1 billion.’"
"I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion. I’m going to be leaving here,'" Biden continued. "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."
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Republican lawmakers and Shokin himself, however, have pointed to Shokin's investigation of Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky at the time of his ouster. In February 2016, one month before Shokin was fired, his office filed a legal petition to seize Zlochevsky's property, including four homes, two pieces of property and a Rolls-Royce sports car, the Kyiv Post reported at the time.
The investigation took place while Hunter Biden served on Burisma's board of directors. Hunter joined the firm in 2014 and departed in 2019 after his term on its board expired.
In a statement to Fox News, the White House pointed to indications that Shokin was fired because he had been too soft on corruption.
READ: Here is What Joe Biden Did for the $10 Million Bribe
"For years, these false claims have been debunked, and no matter how much air time Fox gives them, they will remain false," White House spokesperson Ian Sams told Fox News. "Fox is giving a platform for these lies to a former Ukrainian prosecutor general whose office his own deputy called ‘a hotbed of corruption,’ drawing demands for reform not only from then-Vice President Biden but also from U.S. diplomats, international partners, and Republican senators like Ron Johnson."
The White House also stated Shokin's office had not been investigating Burisma or Hunter at the time of his ouster in March 2016, and it pointed to three reports published within weeks of each other in 2019 by The Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times stating Shokin's office wasn't investigating Burisma.
Shokin: Burisma merited ‘special attention’
"The reason I oversaw the Burisma case was because I was the prosecutor general. Burisma was an ordinary case. There wasn't anything particularly different about it," Shokin told Fox News.
"The reason that I was handling it was because it deserved a special mention," Shokin continued. "It was on a list of cases to merit special attention because Hunter Biden was involved with Burisma and of course, his father, the vice president, Biden at the time oversaw Ukraine affairs for the White House. This is why."
He added that he had "no doubt" Burisma was engaged in illegal activities and stated it would take him "half a day" to explain them all. Among the allegations, he said Burisma illegally produced, sold and utilized natural gas supplies.
"I have no doubt that there were illegal activities engaged in by Burisma," Shokin said. "As a matter of fact, the criminal case had been started before me."
"It continued to expand and Zlochevsky, who at the time held the post of minister and was the founder and CEO of Burisma, started bringing in people who could provide protection for him," he said. "Hunter Biden was among them and the corruption network expanded as a result. So, yes, to answer your question, there was no doubt in my mind that Burisma was engaged in illegal activities."
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