Ukraine investigators open case into Joe Biden's role in firing of top prosecutor
Ukraine investigators open case into Joe Biden's role in firing of top prosecutor
by
Daniel Chaitin
| February 29, 2020 09:04 AM
told the Washington Post.
“They need to investigate this. They have no other alternative. They are required to do this by the decision of the court. If they don't, then they violate a whole string of procedural norms,” Teleshetsky said.
The State Bureau of Investigations confirmed an inquiry was opened. The case mentions only a U.S. citizen and does not refer to Biden by name.
Daria Kaleniuk, director of Ukraine’s Anti-Corruption Action Center, downplayed the significance of the matter, saying that Ukrainian law requires state investigators to open a case on a court order even if they don't believe there is enough evidence. “If I was a SBI investigator, I would close that case immediately,” she said.
Shokin, who was dismissed in March 2016 after about a year in office by then-President Petro Poroshenko, claims he was ousted because he wanted to investigate the lucrative role Hunter Biden, the son of Joe Biden, had on the board of Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings. President Trump, his
personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, and other allies also claim Biden improperly used his position as vice president to pressure Ukraine to fire Shokin to protect his son from an
investigation into Burisma.
The elder Biden
threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees if Ukraine did not fire its top prosecutor, who was criticized by the West for not doing enough to crack down on corruption. The European Union, the International Monetary Fund, and other allies had the same objective, and Biden was repeating U.S. policy that had been set out by Washington’s ambassador to Kyiv in the preceding months and was briefed by White House staff just ahead of the trip.
Biden says there is
no "credibility" to the claims of corruption, but his critics have seized on video of a statement the former vice president made in January 2018, where he boasted to members of a panel hosted by the Council of Foreign Relations that he ordered the Ukrainian government to fire Shokin or the White House would renege on a commitment to provide aid. “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 *****. He got fired," Biden said.