As vice president, Joe Biden bullied Ukraine into firing a prosecutor who was investigating a business deal that involved the form VP’s son, Hunter.
Now, Biden has refused to answer questions regarding his involvement. ABC News reported Thursday morning that on two separate campaign stops, Biden avoided questions about the investigation into the company that employs his son. Not only did the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate avoid the questions, ABC reported, but his staff physically blocked reporters from getting close to the former vice president.
“Biden’s campaign did provide ABC News with a statement saying the former vice president has always adhered to ‘well-established executive branch ethics standards,’ adding that if Biden wins the White House he will issue an executive order to ‘address conflicts of interest of any kind,” the outlet reported. “‘This process will be set out in detail in the executive order,’ the statement reads, ‘that President Biden would issue on his first day in office.’”
So, essentially, no one else would be allowed to do what Biden did going forward, if he were elected.
Back in 2016, as The Daily Wire previously reported, Biden pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko to replace the country’s top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. Biden later bragged in 2018 that he was able to get Shokin removed by threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. Shokin was fired.
What Biden neglected to mention is that at the time he was working to get Shokin fired, the prosecutor was looking into Burisma Holdings, a company that employs Hunter Biden. Hunter’s American based firm, Rosemont Seneca Partners LLC, also received monthly transfers of more than $166,000 from Burisma from 2014 to 2015. Shokin was investigating these payments, the Wire previously reported.
With Shokin out of the picture, the investigation into Burisma and by extension, Hunter, ended. This kept the issue from affecting Democrats in 2016, specifically, Hillary Clinton’s election campaign. Clinton still lost.
ABC talked to several ethics experts who said the questions surrounding Biden’s conflicts of interest were legitimate.
Biden’s issues involving business dealings with his son stretch back even further, as ABC reported. In 2014, Biden met Ukraine officials to discuss corruption and relying on Russia for its energy. Just weeks after Biden’s visit, Hunter was appointed to a paid directorship on Burisma Energy’s board.
Hunter was similarly rewarded a year earlier, when he accompanied his father on an official vice presidential trip to China. Weeks later, Hunter had a billion-dollar business deal in the country.
Hunter told ABC he and his father never spoke about the overseas business deals that conveniently took place after his father visited the country.
“At no time have I discussed with my father the company’s business, or my board service,” Hunter Biden told ABC in a statement forwarded by his attorney. “Any suggestion to the contrary is just plain wrong.”
Another attorney for Hunter told ABC the vice president’s son merely went along for the trips and conducted no business meetings while abroad.