An Obama administration task force determined in late 2015 that Ukraine merited a $1 billion loan guarantee before then-Vice President Joe Biden leveraged the aid to oust a controversial prosecutor.
A task force made up of officials from the departments of Justice, State, and Treasury said Ukraine had made sufficient progress toward combatting corruption to merit a third $1 billion loan guarantee, according to a memo obtained by Just The News. Weeks later, Biden instead used the offer to force Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor at the time, Viktor Shokin.
“The [Interagency Policy Committee (IPC)] concluded that (1) Ukraine has made sufficient progress on its reform agenda to justify a third guarantee and (2) Ukraine has an economic need for the guarantee and it is in our strategic interest to provide one,” the October 1, 2015, IPC task force memo says. “As such, the IPC recommends moving forward with a third loan guarantee for Ukraine in the near‐term.”
Despite the…