In 2016, Burisma Holdings was being investigated by Ukraine’s then-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin while then-Vice President Joe Biden’s Hunter sat on the company’s board making $83,000. So Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in aid to Ukraine unless they fired Shokin.
Biden argued that his actions were above board because he was carrying out the “official policy” of the Obama administration to root out corruption in Ukraine. “It was a fully transparent policy carried out in front of the whole world and fully, fully embraced by the international community of democracies,” he claimed.
But according to official memos seen by Just The News, this is not the case. Instead, these memos indicate that U.S. State Department officials were “impressed” with Shokin’s anti-corruption plan and fully supportive of his efforts—undermining a key narrative during the Democrats’ first partisan impeachment of President Trump.
During the trial, House Democrats maintained that Shokin was fired because State Department officials weren’t happy with his anti-corruption efforts, not because he was investigating Burisma. But these memos obtained by Just the News and the Southeastern Legal Foundation under a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request show that senior State Department officials, including then-Secretary of State John Kerry, were “impressed” with Shokin’s efforts.
“We have been impressed with the ambitious reform and anti-corruption agenda of your government,” then-Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland personally wrote Shokin on behalf of Secretary of State John Kerry on June 9, 2015.
Nuland currently serves as Biden’s undersecretary of state.
“The ongoing reform of your office, law enforcement, and the judiciary will enable you to investigate and prosecute corruption and other crimes in an effective, fair, and transparent manner,” Nuland added. “The United States fully supports your government’s efforts to fight corruption and other crimes in an effective, fair and transparent manner.”
Related: Biden’s Threat to Withhold $1B from Ukraine Violated the Law
The letter praising Shokin’s performance came a mere six months before Biden successfully pressured Ukrainian officials to fire Shokin. This undermines the Democrats’ impeachment narrative and Biden’s justification for Shokin’s firing. As such, this new evidence supports allegations that Biden’s effort to get Shokin fire was motivated by personal reasons.
But perhaps the most disturbing aspect of this new development is that these memos were not provided to Trump’s impeachment defense team.
“We did not receive this. We should have received it. President Trump’s defense attorneys also should have received it,” Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told Just The News.
“This just underscores how congressional oversight has really diminished over the years mainly because we don’t have enforcement powers,” Johnson added. “Administration officials realize this, bureaucrats realize this, so they just thumbed their nose at congressional investigators that they run off the clock.”
While it’s unlikely the revelation of this information would have altered the outcome of the impeachment vote, as Democrats intended to impeach Trump before he even took office, it is clear that Biden’s effort to get Shokin fired was not because he was carrying out official administration policy.
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