Former Ukraine prosecutor makes explosive claims against Joe and Hunter Biden in new interview
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Brian Kilmeade spoke exclusively with former Ukraine prosecutor general Viktor Shokin, who says his firing was a 'case of corruption' in response to investigating Burisma. The full interview airs Saturday at 8 p.m. ET. on 'One Nation.'
EXCLUSIVE: Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin told Fox News in an exclusive sit-down interview that he was fired during the Obama administration for investigating Burisma, the energy firm whose board Hunter Biden served on.
During the interview with Fox News' Brian Kilmeade - set to air Saturday at 8 p.m. - Shokin said it is his "firm personal conviction" that he was fired because then-Vice President Biden and Hunter were bribed. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko ousted Shokin in 2016 - he was hired a year prior - due to Shokin's alleged corruption and pressure from the U.S. government led by Biden.
"I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma," Shokin said in the interview.
"[Poroshenko] understood and so did Vice President Biden, that had I continued to oversee the Burisma investigation, we would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and others."
Shokin added that he believed both Joe and Hunter Biden received bribes in connection to the case, though he didn't provide proof of that accusation.
"I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case," he added. "They were being bribed. And the fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing - isn't that alone a case of corruption?"
Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin holds a press conference on Nov. 2, 2015, months before he was ousted over allegations of corruption.(Genya Savilov/AFP via Getty Images)
"For years, these false claims have been debunked, and no matter how much air time Fox gives them, they will remain false," White House spokesperson Ian Sams responded to Fox News. "Fox is giving a platform for these lies to a former Ukrainian prosecutor general whose office his own deputy called 'a hotbed of corruption,' drawing demands for reform not only from then-Vice President Biden but also from U.S. diplomats, international partners, and Republican senators like Ron Johnson."
One year after leaving the White House, Biden boasted about how he personally put pressure on Poroshenko to fire Shokin. He explained that he told Ukrainian officials the U.S. would withhold up to $1 billion in aid money earmarked for their country if Shokin remained in his position.
"I said, 'Nah, I'm not going to - we're not going to give you the billion dollars.' They said, 'You have no authority. You're not the president. The president said -.' I said, 'Call him.'" Biden remarked during a January 2018 event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations. "I said, 'I'm telling you, you're not getting the $1 billion.'"
"I said, 'You're not getting the billion. I'm going to be leaving here,'" Biden continued. "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 bitch, he got fired. And they put in place someone who was solid at the time."
Biden speaking during an event hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations on Jan. 23, 2018.(Council on Foreign Relations/Video screenshot)
Shokin, though, said he was probing Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky at the time of his ouster. In February 2016, one month before Shokin was fired, his office filed a legal petition to seize Zlochevsky's property, including four homes, two pieces of property and a Rolls-Royce sports car, the Kyiv Post reported at the time.
The former prosecutor general told Fox News that Burisma illegally produced, sold and utilized natural gas supplies.
His investigation took place while Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board of directors. Hunter joined the firm in 2014 and departed in 2019 after his term on its board expired.
Hunter's former business partner Devon Archer, who also served on Burisma's board, testified in a closed-door House Oversight Committee hearing in July that, amid pressure from Shokin's office and other entities investigating Burisma, company leaders turned to Hunter for help. Archer said Hunter "called D.C." to help get Shokin fired.
"Devon Archer's testimony today confirms Joe Biden lied to the American people when he said he had no knowledge about his son's business dealings and was not involved," Oversight Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said after Archer's testimony. "Joe Biden was 'the brand' that his son sold around the world to enrich the Biden family."
"When Burisma's owner was facing pressure from the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the company for corruption, Archer testified that Burisma executives asked Hunter to 'call D.C.' after a Burisma board meeting in Dubai," he added. "Why did Joe Biden lie to the American people about his family's business dealings and his involvement? It begs the question, what else he is hiding from the American people?"
President Biden's son Hunter Biden served on Burisma's board of directors between 2014 and 2019.(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Fox News Digital recently reported that, on Nov. 2, 2015, Burisma executive Vadym Pozharski emailed Hunter Biden, Archer and fellow Hunter associate Eric Schwerin about a "revised proposal, contract and initial invoice for Burisma Holdings," from lobbying firm Blue Star Strategies. Hunter reportedly connected Burisma with Blue Star Strategies to help the energy firm fight corruption charges levied against Zlochevsky, the company's owner.
Pozharski emphasized in his email that the "ultimate purpose" of the agreement with Blue Star Strategies was to shut down "any cases/pursuits against Nikolay in Ukraine," referring to Zlochevsky, who also went by Nikolay.
"Evidence makes it clear that Hunter Biden was only appointed to Burisma's board of directors because of his last name and family's network," Comer told Fox News Digital after the report.
However, in a statement to Fox News, the White House pointed to indications that Shokin was fired because he had been too soft on corruption.
The White House also stated Shokin's office had not been investigating Burisma or Hunter at the time of his ouster in March 2016, and it pointed to three reports published within weeks of each other in 2019 by The Washington Post, Associated Press and New York Times stating Shokin's office wasn't
investigating Burisma.
Devon Archer, a former business associate of Hunter Biden, arrives for a closed-door hearing with the House Oversight Committee on July 31.(Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
After Shokin's ouster, The New York Times reported that Shokin had been criticized in Ukraine for not prosecuting officials, businessmen and lawmakers for corruption while Viktor Yanukovych was president. The U.S. government and International Monetary Fund had believed in 2016 that Shokin wasn't doing enough to fight corruption, which ran rampant throughout Ukraine.
Both former Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland and former Deputy Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs Bridget Brink testified during a Senate hearing in 2020 that Shokin's decision not to pursue a Burisma investigation or root out corruption elsewhere were reasons for his firing.
"It was our conclusion by then that, in fact, the dismissal of Prosecutor Shokin would be counter to Burisma's interests, because not only was he not pursuing the Burisma case, he was responsible for protecting those who had helped get the case dismissed," Nuland said.
She also said, though, that the U.S. government was "dissatisfied that past investigations of Burisma had not been brought to conclusion."
Fox News Digital's Jessica Chasmar contributed to this report.
Thomas Catenacci is a politics writer for Fox News Digital.
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I'm sure Joe Biden regrets the day he boasted about getting a Ukrainian prosecutor fired. The BS story line that has grown out of that is that Joe as vice president leveraged the money designated to help the Ukraine in order to get a prosecutor fired because the prosecutor was "too soft on corruption." Of course, we all now know that the prosecutor was investigating the company that hired Joe's degenerate son, whom they gave $ millions to. The other incredible part of that story is that lefties want us to believe Burisma got nothing in return. That's right, our geniuses here on NT say, "maybe Hunter scammed them."
It now appears that the prosecutor who Biden forced to be fired isn't going to be quiet.
To believe this baloney you have to believe that all the people in the state dept and all the western European countries were involved in covering up Joe Biden's corruption, and that Shokin was a good guy.
Through 2015 and early 2016, domestic and international pressure (including from the IMF , the EU , and the EBRD ) built for Shokin to be removed from office. The Obama administration withheld $1 billion in loan guarantees to pressure the Ukrainian government to remove Shokin from office. [25] [26] [27] [b] His defenders nonetheless argued that he played an important role "balancing competing political interests". [29] His Deputy Prosecutor, Vitaly Kasko , announced his resignation on 15 February 2016 denouncing the corruption and lawlessness of the Prosecutor's office. [30] Shokin was also criticized in Ukraine for failing to prosecute snipers who killed demonstrators during the revolution, as well as for failing to investigate corrupt businesses. [31]
To believe this involves believing multiple whistleblowers and the man that Biden had fired when his degenerate son was on the Board of Burisma.
To believe this involves logic. Hunter took millions and nobody got anything in return?
You even had what normally you love: Biden boasting that he got the guy fired by leveraging funding designated for Ukraine.
First of all it is from wikipedia and second of all that was the narrative created to defend the vice president's heavily conflicted actions.
Burisma was buying a lobbyist in Washington. That was Hunter Bidens role with Burisma. He undoubtedly led them to believe he was a better and more influential lobbyist than he really was. That is not a crime.
LMAO! Ok I have you and Sandy down for believing that.
Powerful people don't react well to being fucked. Something would have happened. Trust me on that one!
This one instance could all be easily cleared up if Obama were to come out and state that this was done at his request, that Biden had his full blessings and that Obama knew the international community also wanted this person fired. But that hasn't happened so ....
See how the goalposts move. Now you are finally admitting that Biden was a foreign lobbyist. He didn't register as one. Mueller charged people with that crime. Funny Biden hasn't been.
Since we all agree he committed that crime (at the least), why hasn't he be charged with that?
Then, of course, investigators should be following the money trail to see if Joe got his taste. Because that, of course, is also illegal, even if he was just following Obama's orders.
Obama is far too intelligent to do that. As soon as he starts "clearing up" these issues he would open himself up to introspection and there would be no end to it. A very slippery slope.
Not really. For instance, a judge can't take a bribe from a defendant's attorney and then say "I would have found him not guilty regardless of the money I received."
It’s criminal there isn’t a criminal investigation by an independent prosecutor. No wonder the ancient biden is so eager to run for president again, it allows him to throttle Andy investigation and keep him out of jail.
He lacks even the basic integrity of trump, who appointed a special prosecutor with less evidence of collusion.
It looks like the only "investigating" will come from the House Committee.
It’s crazy. The house committee can’t perform a criminal investigation and doesn’t have the tools the DOJ does, but they are still generating compelling evidence of the Biden’s corruption.
I assume that is why Biden's press secretary was able to confidently say there would not be a pardon for Hunter Biden. They have all their ducks lined up. Garland will keep them safe.
Shokin added that he believed both Joe and Hunter Biden received bribes in connection to the case, though he didn't provide proof of that accusation.
You guys are willing to hang your hat on anything. No wonder Q gravitates towards your kind.
Joe Biden has already gotten away with it. The powers-that-be will now claim that these allegations are being overblown and exploited to distract from Trump. The PTB tells us that Trump is the real criminal and that Biden making gaffe after gaffe isn't criminal.
The PTB will employ a variation of the Clinton defenses; Biden is stupid but being stupid isn't a crime. The PTB will point to a special counsel being appointed and the story is getting press coverage. What more do you want?
He admits he has nothing but wants to suck up to Fox News anyway. Maybe they will give him a Russian language show on their network.
BTW an unproven fact is not a fact.
And facts that are being withheld are not false either.
Do you think we are going to be hearing from our newly minted special counsel? You know, the one that sat on the case for 5 years, tipped off Hunter's lawyers of a pending IRS raid and allowed the statute of limitations to run out on serious crimes? You know, the guy who was part of the mother of all sweetheart deals?