Biden's bid to oust Ukraine prosecutor followed intense pressure by son's Burisma firm
Six high-level meetings included a previously undisclosed contact with U.S. ambassador in Kiev, records show.
By John Solomon
Updated: September 28, 2020 - 7:27am
Hunter Biden and representatives of Burisma Holdings secured at least six high-level meetings with senior Obama administration officials in the weeks just before Vice President Joe Biden forced the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating the gas company, according to newly disclosed memos and testimony.
During some of the meetings, a Democratic firm called Blue Star Strategies that was representing Burisma repeatedly pressed U.S. officials to help end corruption allegations that long had dogged the Ukrainian gas firm, which appointed Hunter Biden to its board in 2014.
In one previously undisclosed contact in December 2015, Blue Star secured a meeting with then-U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt in which the Burisma lobbyists made a case that the gas firm should not be prosecuted any longer.
The meeting came at a sensitive time. Pyatt just a few months earlier had given a speech demanding that Burisma and its owner Mykola Zlochevsky be prosecuted for corruption, and Ukrainian prosecutors had begun stepping up activity in the case, including sending evidence to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau for further investigation and eventually securing a new asset forfeiture against Zlochevsky.
The New York Times also had just reported a story saying Hunter Biden's presence on Burisma's board during the investigation was undercutting U.S. credibility in the fight against Ukrainian corruption. State Department officials divulged Joe Biden also made the first effort to fire the lead prosecutor in the Burisma case that same month.
more
https://justthenews.com/accountability/russia-and-ukraine-scandals/joe-bidens-bid-oust-ukraine-prosecutor-followed-intense
