It’s hardly a “claim”. Joe Biden bragged that he withheld tax payers’ money to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired, this is 100% a fact
It’s hardly a “claim”. Joe Biden bragged that he withheld tax payers’ money to get a Ukrainian prosecutor fired, this is 100% a fact and it’s on video. I want to know if it was Obama policy to leverage U.S. dollars to get prosecutors fired in other countries. Did Obama request that? The author of this article seems to focus on corruption within Burisma and blame’s Shokin for not “rooting” it out but has no issue with Hunter joining the company.
Wow in 2019 USA Today really loved and trusted an anonym’s whistleblower; I don’t remember certain IRS whistleblowers getting the same admiration. Wasn’t the transcript of this particular Trump phone call released? Can’t people read it and make their own decision?
The article admits Shokin did investigate Burisma but it was prior to Hunter “joining” the boarder. The time of the investigation was from 2010 – 2012 and Hunter Biden joined the company in 2014. When Hunter joined this company, by his own admission, he was as high as a kite, not paying taxes, conceiving children with women he didn’t remember, getting kicked out of sex clubs, losing guns and laptops and smoking parmesan cheese.
Direct Quotes:
At the heart of Congress' probe into the president's actions is his claim that former Vice President and 2020 Democratic frontrunner Joe Biden strong-armed the Ukrainian government to fire its top prosecutor in order to thwart an investigation into a company tied to his son, Hunter Biden.
Without pressure from Joe Biden, European diplomats, the International Monetary Fund and other international organizations, Shokin would not have been fired, said Daria Kaleniuk, co-founder and executive director of the Anti Corruption Action Centre in Kiev.
In a July phone call, Trump asked the president of Ukraine to investigate Biden's actions. That prompted a whistleblower to accuse Trump of asking a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, which is now the subject of an impeachment inquiry.
The actions at the center of Trump's allegation occurred in late 2015 and early 2016, when U.S. aid was critical to Ukraine. Russia had seized control of Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula and was supporting separatists who were fighting Ukrainian forces in the eastern part of the country.
Biden took an interest in Ukraine, said Steven Pifer, a William J. Perry fellow at Stanford University and former ambassador to Ukraine under President Bill Clinton.
At one point, Biden withheld $1 billion in aid to Ukraine to pressure the government to remove Shokin from the Prosecutor General's Office.
The investigation dealt with the Ministry of Ecology, which allegedly granted special permits to Burisma between 2010 and 2012, the agency said. Hunter Biden did not join the company until 2014.
Critics of Hunter Biden have questioned how he landed such a lucrative role with no experience in Ukraine or the gas industry.
But it's not unusual for Ukrainian companies to bring on high-profile people from the West in an effort to burnish their image and gain influence, Pifer said.
There is no evidence Hunter Biden did anything wrong, said Yuri Lutsenko, the prosecutor general who succeeded Shokin.
However, Lutsenko, who's also faced criticism for his actions as prosecutor, supported Trump's claim before changing his story. He resigned as prosecutor in August.
Biden has boasted about his role in getting Shokin fired. During a 2018 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, he said
he withheld $1 billion in loan guarantees for Ukraine in order to force the government to address the problem with its top prosecutor.
"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 said.
Even without any credible evidence that Joe Biden sought to benefit his son, Pifer said Hunter Biden showed poor judgment in getting involved with Ukraine.
"At that point, it was pretty clear that his father was already the lead American policy person on Ukraine," he said. "And even if there's no conflict of interest, I think that he should have been more mindful of how that appears."
In July 2015, Shokin's office became mired in scandal after authorities raided homes belonging to two high-ranking prosecutors. Police seized millions of dollars worth of diamonds and cash, suggesting the pair had been taking bribes.
#USA #TheChubbyCaucasianChristianClosetedConservative #JoeBiden #Ukraine #Trump
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