Senate Homeland Security Committee member Ron Johnson, R-Wis., claimed new reporting about then-Vice President Joe Biden’s role in the ouster of a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating an energy company on which his son sat on the board showed the current president to be “totally responsive” to his son.
Johnson said new reporting called into question whether Biden’s widely-circulated boast about encouraging a Ukrainian prosecutor’s ouster was actually in line with U.S. policy at the time.
In 2018 remarks before the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden spoke of dangling $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine contingent on having prosecutor Viktor Shokin fired.
“[I] said I’m leaving in six hours – if the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well son of a b—-, he got fired,” Biden said of Shokin – who was investigating Burisma Holdings, on the board of which Hunter Biden sat at the time.
On “Hannity,” Johnson cited Biden’s sentiment, and contrasted it with reportage from Just The News on Monday, which reported a 2015 U.S. “task force” of various cabinet officials concurred Ukraine deserved such loan guarantees. The outlet cited memos obtained through FOIA requests and congressional inquiries.
One obtained memo from 2015 stated Ukraine made good headway on a “reform agenda” to deserve the loan guarantees.
On “Hannity,” Johnson praised the new report, saying it rightly “piece[s] together… the puzzle to give us a clear view” of the situation.
“Something else to note is, the [Obama] State Department was singing Shokin’s praises in June… 2015. Then Ambassador [to Ukraine Geoffrey] Pyatt gave a speech where he basically nudged Shokin to start to investigating Burisma – and Shokin did,” he said.
“And so it was that aggressive investigation into Burisma that panicked Hunter Biden and then really, I think, caused the turnaround in Joe Biden’s attitude toward Shokin and the billion-dollar loan guarantee – again, totally responsive to what Hunter’s concerns were because Hunter’s making millions dollars being on that board.”
Pyatt spoke to a group of business leaders in Odessa, Ukraine in 2015, according to RadioFreeEurope, which reported the diplomat urged those in attendance to “speak up in support of these brave investigators and prosecutors.”
On “Hannity,” Johnson added that the new development throw further into question President Biden’s credibility in making major pronouncements.