In the recent dizzying list of alleged investigations and impeachable offenses against President Joe Biden, one name has been all but forgotten by a confused and reeling nation.
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin seems to have vanished from American memory as quickly as he vanished from the Hunter Biden/Burisma investigation.
Biden proudly boasted, on video before the American public, that he threatened Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in March 2016. The threat included withholding a billion dollars in tax-payer money from Ukraine if President Poroshenko did not immediately fire Shokin. Biden also exposed former President Barack Obama as being complicit to the threat.
Per Biden’s own words, “I said, ‘You’re not getting the billion.’ I’m going to be leaving here in, I think it was about six hours. 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 went on to gleefully add, “Well, son of a bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time.”
As if Biden’s own words weren’t enough, over a half-dozen Ukrainian officials confirmed the exchange, although they claim the final verbal exchange occurred after months of ongoing threats.
It was widely known that Shokin was already under scrutiny for not prosecuting enough corruption cases. Democrats use this fact to exonerate President Biden’s involvement, but officials claim that there was one critical piece of information Biden’s gloating videotape neglected to mention. Shokin was leading a corruption probe into Burisma, the natural gas company that Hunter Biden worked for as a board member.
U.S. banking records showed that Rosemont Seneca Partners, Hunter Biden’s American-based firm, received monthly payments in amounts upwards of $165k from Burisma throughout 2014 and 2015, while then-Vice-President was the top U.S. official handling Ukraine during its tense relationship with Russia. This is being investigated as one portion of the Biden corruption scandal.
But in Ukraine, Shokin’s official investigative file shows prosecutors had identified Hunter Biden and Rosemont Services as recipients of the money, prompting its own corruption investigation. Shokin stated that prior to his firing, he had made “specific plans” for an in-depth investigation that “included interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”
With the firing of Shokin and the closing of the case in Ukraine, it seemed Hunter and Joe Biden would escape unscathed. That all changed when the case was reopened in 2018, following Biden’s remarks, by new Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko. Lutsenko stated that he had uncovered evidence in the Burisma case that would interest U.S. authorities, particularly the vice president’s intervention and threats to withhold Ukrainian funds.
“Unfortunately, Mr. Biden had correlated and connected this aid with some of the HR (personnel) issues and changes in the prosecutor’s office,” Lutsenko said about the incident in question.
But all of this was swept neatly under the rug to advance Joe Biden’s run for office in 2020, and while the fallout of Burisma and the Biden family dealings are currently under investigation, Biden’s boastful quid-pro-quo admission has been ignored by the media and Democrats alike.
In 2019, Democrats breathlessly awaited the downfall of then-President Trump for an alleged quid-pro-quo with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky during a July 25, 2019, phone call. They claimed that Trump withheld military aid in exchange for investigations into Ukraine’s role in the 2016 election and presidential candidate Joe Biden’s ties to the country. As they gleefully listed allegations and whistle-blowers lined up to take down the president, only three pesky obstacles stood in the way.
First, the phone call’s transcripts, while indeed pressuring the Ukrainian government for investigations, did not contain any mention of withholding the aid. Secondly, Volodymyr Zelensky was unaware that the funds had been held up.
And lastly, no one bothered to tell Zelensky that he was participating in a quid-pro-quo.
“There was no blackmail. I had no idea the military aid was held up,” Zelensky said, repeatedly confirming, “I did not speak with US President Trump in those terms: you give me this, I give you that.”
Still, the impeachment sham progressed despite no evidence to back up Democratic claims. It was once again a matter of Democrats overplaying their hand.
President Gerald Ford once quipped that “An impeachable offense is whatever a majority of the House of Representatives considers it to be at a given moment in history.”
It’s important to remember Victor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor who was fired because of Biden. It’s an impeachable offense, confirmed by Biden’s own admission, to be added to the growing list of Biden’s alleged crimes.
