House Republicans are probing the State Department over its “perception” of former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin in 2015 after then-Vice President Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid to the country if Shokin was not fired.
In a Tuesday letter, Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, asked Secretary of State Antony Blinken to provide more context on “certain sudden foreign policy changes” related to Ukraine and Shokin’s firing.
Biden has been accused of pushing Shokin’s firing to protect his son, Hunter Biden, who was then on the board of Burisma, a Ukrainian gas company facing corruption allegations. The White House has claimed that the move was because Shokin was not pursuing corruption in Ukraine.
The letter is part of the committee’s work investigating Biden’s “connections to certain international and domestic business transactions and practices, including his family and associates…