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A leaked phone call between Joe Biden and former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko revealed in explicit detail the quid-pro-quo arrangement to fire former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Victor Shokin – who Poroshenko admits did nothing wrong – in exchange for $1 billion in US loan guarantees, according to Zero Hedge.
Several news outlets have reported on the leaked call, including the NY Post and the Washington Post.
Even worse for Biden, the Ukrainian judge has ordered Joe Biden be listed as an alleged perpetrator of the crime in prosecutor’s firing. Ukraine is investigating the corruption that occurred, which spells bad news for Biden as he prepares for the upcoming presidential election against Donald Trump.
Biden was seen bragging about withholding the billion in funding from Ukraine in January of 2018.
The calls were leaked by Ukrainian MP Andrii Derkach.
He said that the recordings of “voices similar to Poroshenko and Biden” were given to him by investigative journalists who claim Poroshenko made them.
Later in the leaked audio on February 18, 2016 – less than three months after the Kerry conversation – Poroshenko delivers some “positive news.”
On March 22, 2016, Biden says “Tell me that there is a new government and a new Prosecutor General. I am prepared to do a public signing of the commitment for the billion dollars.”
“Yesterday I met with General Prosecutor Shokin,” says Poroshenko.
“And despite of the fact that we didn’t have any corruption charges, we don’t have any information about him doing something wrong, I specially asked him – no, it was day before yesterday – I specially asked him to resign.”
“In, uh, as his, uh, position as a state person. And despite of the fact that he has a support in the power.”
“And as a finish of my meeting with him, he promised to give me the statement on resignation. And one hour ago he bring me the written statement of his resignation. And this is my second step for keeping my promises.”
To which Biden replied: “I agree.”
“And I’m a man of my word,” Biden adds. “And now that the new Prosecutor General is in place, we’re ready to move forward to signing that one billion dollar loan guarantee.”
More from Zero Hedge:
Poroshenko tells Biden that one of the leading candidates is the man who replaced Shokin, Yuriy Lutsenko who later said in a deposition that Hunter Biden and his business partners were receiving millions of dollars in compensation from Burisma.
Then, on May 13, 2016, Biden congratulates Poroshenko on “getting the new Prosecutor General,” saying that it will be “critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin did.”
Poroshenko thanks Biden for the support, and says that it was a “very tough challenge and a very difficult job.”
Shokin, meanwhile, filed a criminal complaint against Biden in Kiev this February, in which he writes:
During the period 2014-2016, the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine was conducting a preliminary investigation into a series of serious crimes committed by the former Minister of Ecology of Ukraine Mykola Zlotchevsky and by the managers of the company “Burisma Holding Limited “(Cyprus), the board of directors of which included, among others, Hunter Biden, son of Joseph Biden, then vice-president of the United States of America.
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“What happened to the president in the 2016 election and throughout the first two years of his administration was abhorrent,” Attorney General William Barr told reporters.
“It was a grave injustice and it was unprecedented in American history,” he added.
However, Barr said that he does not expect a criminal investigation of former President Obama or former Vice President Joe Biden to result from the probe undertaken by U.S. Attorney John Durham.
“Based on the information I have today, I don’t expect Mr. Durham’s work will lead to a criminal investigation of either man,” Barr told reporters at the Justice Department. “Our concern over potential criminality is focused on others.”
“The law enforcement and intelligence apparatus of this country were involved in advancing a false and utterly baseless Russian collusion narrative against the president,” he added.
“We are not going to lower the standards just to achieve a result,” he said, before adding he did not expect criminal investigations into either Obama or Biden.
