Former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin claimed that then-Vice President Joe Biden pressured his government to fire him due to his investigation into Ukrainian oil company Burisma.
In an interview with Fox News’s Brian Kilmeade set to air on Saturday, Shokin said he believes he was fired due to investigating Burisma, whose board Hunter Biden served on.
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The former vice president pressured then-President Petro Poroshenko to fire him, as further investigation would allegedly “have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in,” Shokin said.
“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.
“[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,” he added.
The Biden family’s alleged corruption, particularly concerning Hunter Biden’s business deals, has gained newfound attention following House Republicans’ investigations. Shokin’s accusations may give the investigation further credence, as he said he firmly believes the Bidens were bribed.
“I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case,” he said. “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?”
The White House denounced Shokin’s accusations as baseless, claiming he was actually removed due to a lax approach to corruption.
“For years, these false claims have been debunked, and no matter how much air time Fox gives them, they will remain false,” White House spokesman Ian Sams said in a statement. “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.”
The deputy who spoke out against Shokin was Vitaly Kasko, who resigned from his position in 2016, calling the office a “hotbed of corruption.”
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The White House also pointed to claims that Shokin wasn’t even investigating Burisma at the time of his ousting. Shokin never had an active investigation into Hunter Biden, according to the Associated Press.
Victoria Nuland, the former assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, also testified in 2020 that the U.S. was “dissatisfied that past investigations of Burisma had not been brought to conclusion,” and alleging that Shokin was “responsible for protecting those who had helped get the case dismissed.”
