Former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin — who was fired after then-Vice President Joe Biden pressured the president of Ukraine to fire him as he investigated a company, Burisma, that employed Biden’s son, Hunter — says that he was told to back off the investigation into the company before he was fired.
“The fired prosecutor at the center of the Ukraine controversy said during a private interview with President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani earlier this year that he was told to back off an investigation into a natural gas firm that was linked to Joe Biden’s son, according to details of that interview that were handed over to Congress by the State Department’s inspector general Wednesday,” Fox News reported. “The interview allegedly conducted by Giuliani took place on Jan. 23, 2019 at an office on Park Avenue in New York City. Shokin was interviewed over the phone, and interpreters were used — one in Ukraine and one in New York, according to the notes obtained by Fox News.”
The notes obtained by Fox News state that “Mr. Shokin attempted to continue the investigations but on or around June or July of 2015, the U.S. Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt told him that the investigation has to be handled with white gloves, which according to Mr. Shokin, that implied do nothing.”
The most explosive part of the Fox News report was the allegations that in February 2016, Shokin, prior to his firing, had sought information on “multiple people in Ukraine” by issuing warrants.
“There were requests for information on Hunter Biden to which nothing was received,” Shokin said, according to the notes obtained by Fox News. “It is believed that Hunter Biden receives a salary, commission plus one million dollars. There were no documents or information on Hunter Biden, and Mr. Shokin stated he was warned to stop by Ambassador Geoffrey R. Pyatt.”
“President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko told Mr. Shokin not to investigate Burisma as it was not in the interest of Joe and/or Hunter Biden. Mr. Shokin was called into Mr. Poroshenko’s office and told that the investigation into Burisma and the Managing Director where Hunter Biden is on the board, has caused Joe Biden to hold up one billion dollars in U.S. aid to Ukraine,” the notes continued.
The documents were obtained by Fox News from sources who attended an “urgent” meeting held today by State Department Inspector General Steve Linick, which Democrats thought was going to be a meeting damaging on the president.
“Sources familiar with the meeting said the IG handed over a packet containing, among other old materials, news articles written this past spring by The Hill’s John Solomon about Democratic ties to Ukraine,” The Daily Caller reported. “The briefing was a huge blow to Democrats, who were expecting bombshell information regarding the Trump administration’s contact with Ukraine and investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden. In fact, several news outlets reported earlier in the day that the briefing would be about State Department leadership retaliating against career employees who wanted to cooperate with the Democrats’ investigation into Trump.”