Timeline in Ukraine Probe Casts Doubt on Giuliani's Biden Claim

[muriel_volestrangler]

Kasko’s assessment adds a wrinkle to one of the first political intrigues of the 2020 election season. It undercuts the idea that Biden, now a top Democratic presidential candidate, was seeking to sideline a prosecutor who was actively threatening a company tied to his son. Instead, it appears more consistent with Biden’s previous statements that he was pressing for the removal of a prosecutor who was failing to tackle rampant corruption: According to public reports and internal documents from the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office, U.S. officials had expressed concern for more than a year about Ukrainian prosecutors’ failure to assist an international investigation of Zlochevsky.
...
Hunter Biden joined the board in April 2014, two months after U.K. authorities requested information from Ukraine as part of a probe against Zlochevsky related to money laundering allegations. Zlochevsky had been minister of environmental protection under then-President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia in February 2014 after mass protests.
...
The case against Zlochevsky and his Burisma Holdings was assigned to Shokin, then a deputy prosecutor. But Shokin and others weren’t pursuing it, according to the internal reports from the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office reviewed by Bloomberg.
...
The U.S. stepped up its criticism in September 2015, when its ambassador to Ukraine, during a speech, accused officials working under Shokin of “subverting” the U.K. investigation.
...
The U.S. plan to push for Shokin’s dismissal didn’t initially come from Biden, but rather filtered up from officials at the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, according to a person with direct knowledge of the situation. Embassy personnel had called for U.S. loan guarantees to Ukraine to be tied to broader anti-corruption efforts, including Shokin’s dismissal, this person said.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-07/timeline-in-ukraine-probe-casts-doubt-on-giuliani-s-biden-claim?utm_content=politics&utm_medium=social&cmpid%3D=socialflow-twitter-politics&utm_source=twitter&utm_campaign=socialflow-organic

So, if anything, Joe Biden was calling for action that might prove a bit embarrassing to his son (even if Hunter joined the firm after the apparent laundering). Shokin had not been investigating problems diligently, including at Zlochevsky's firm.

But of course, Giuliani got some of the media to accept his spin.

[George II]

1. Thanks! Unfortunately even some Democrats have taken this story and run with it, despite....

....the questionable source and fuzzy facts.

[DownriverDem]

3. Know why?

They don't support Biden and are trying to bring him down.

[WeekiWater]

2. It's going to be hard to take Biden on with this one...

Outside of right wing spin. We will have to deal with right wing spin no matter who the candidate is.

Middle Class Joe wanted to be more tough on Ukraine's rampant corruption and have stronger efforts to rein in the power of its oligarchs. Anyone who knows about this would then have to claim that Biden was controlling the British courts as well. When the British court unfroze the assets of Zlochevsky the US ambassador actually made a strong rebuke of the action and called Zlochevsky out by name.

Sorry to the Biden haters. This one neither fits on a bumper sticker nor does it hold water.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1287&pid=110200

[voteearlyvoteoften]

4. Knr 🇺🇦