Fired Ukrainian prosecutor says Joe and Hunter Biden took bribes!
NEW YORK (PNN) - August 25, 2023 - Former Ukrainian Prosecutor-General Viktor Shokin is accusing Joe and Hunter Biden of corruption - saying they accepted large money bribes from Burisma and were behind his firing.
Shokin, who was ousted as Ukraine’s top prosecutor in 2016, made the accusations during excerpts of an upcoming explosive interview airing on Fox News.
At the time of his firing, he was investigating oil company Burisma Holdings for corruption - when Hunter was serving on the firm’s board.
“I do not want to deal in unproven facts. But my firm personal conviction is that yes, this was the case. They were being bribed,” Shokin says in the clip of the interview.
“The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in (Fascist Police States of Amerika) money in exchange for my dismissal - my firing - isn’t that alone a case of corruption?” he continues in another clip.
The full interview will air Saturday evening at 8:00 pm ET with Brian Kilmeade.
The White House is accusing Fox News of giving a “platform to lies” by airing the interview.
In December 2015, then-Vice President Joe Biden delivered a speech to the Ukrainian Rada during which he touted his anti-corruption efforts in the country and urged an overhaul and reform of the office of the general prosecutor.
A few months later in March 2016, Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine if Shokin specifically was not fired for corruption - and he was fired shortly thereafter.
Years later, Biden actually bragged about his firing at a Council on Foreign Relations event in 2018.
Biden said that he would withhold a billion dollars in FPSA aid if the Ukrainians did not agree to fire Shokin.
“I looked at them and said, I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Biden said.
Republicans have said Hunter’s Burisma entanglement and possible influence in Shokin’s firing is evidence of the Biden family’s influence peddling scheme.
As part of a larger investigation, they are seeking records revealing Joe Biden’s use of pseudonyms to discuss his activities related to Ukraine with his son Hunter during his time as vice president.
They specifically want an un-redacted document that indicates that then-Vice President Biden took a call with the president of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, on May 27, 2016.
Republicans say the document was emailed to “Robert L. Peters” which is a pseudonym the House Oversight Committee has identified as then Vice-President Biden.
Hunter Biden’s ex-business partner Devon Archer testified before the House Oversight Committee earlier this month that Joe Biden’s “brand” protected Burisma because “people would be intimidated to mess with them.”
Hunter’s presence on Burisma’s board and access to his father - then vice president - led to the company’s longevity because they had the “capabilities to navigate D.C.,” Archer said according to the transcript.
Hunter’s best friend and business associate sat with him on Burisma’s board beginning in 2014. They also started Rosemont Seneca Partners, an investment advisory firm, together.
He confirmed that Hunter put Joe on speakerphone 20 times during business meetings over a 10-year period, which was a “signal” of “value,” and Hunter used his dad as “defensive leverage”.
He also told lawmakers that Joe sat and had dinner in-person on at least two occasions with Hunter and his foreign business partners, who then wired money almost immediately after to Biden-affiliated companies.
During a dinner with Burisma executives at the Four Seasons in Dubai in December 2015, Hunter said he would be able to get “help from D.C.” in order to relieve some “government pressure” on the company.
Archer testified that Burisma was “getting pressure” and as a result, they “requested Hunter, you know, help them with some of that pressure.”
He said it was government pressure from the ongoing Ukrainian investigation into the company at the time - led by top prosecutor Shokin.
However, Archer said that Shokin “wasn’t specifically on my radar as being an individual that was - that was targeting him.”
“But yes, there was constant pressure, and it was like it was like whack a mole in regard to the pressures that had to resolve,” Archer continued.
He said that the Burisma executives weren’t specific in asking directly “can the big guy help?”
Rather, they used the amorphous term, “can we get help in D.C.?”
Archer understood that “D.C.” meant Hunter’s influence based on his connection to his then-VP father.
“Well, I mean, he was a lobbyist and an expert and obviously he carried, you know, a very powerful name. So, I think it was that’s what they were asking for,” said Archer.