Viktor Shokin says Hunter Biden recruited by Burisma ‘provide protection’ for CEO

Fired Ukraine prosecutor general Viktor Shokin claimed then-second son Hunter Biden was brought on to the Ukrainian gas company Burisma’s board in order to “provide protection” for CEO and founder Mykola Zlochevsky from criminal investigations.

“I have no doubt that there were illegal activities engaged in by Burisma,” he told Fox News’ “One Nation” host Brian Kilmeade through a translator in an interview that aired on Saturday night.

“It continued to expand and Zlochevsky, who at the time held the post of minister … started bringing in people who could provide protection for him. Hunter Biden was among them and the corruption network expanded as a result,” he said.

Kyiv’s former top prosecutor has emerged as a key figure in the investigation into the Biden family foreign business dealings and accusations of bribery. Shokin’s accusations, if deemed credible, could add fire to calls for a House impeachment inquiry into the president — which could happen as soon as next month.

Shokin claims he was forced out of office in 2016 by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko “at the insistence of then-Vice President Joe Biden” amid an investigation into Burisma Holdings and Zlochevsky, Shokin told Kilmeade.

Biden was withholding much-needed aid to Ukraine in exchange for bribes for Shokin’s removal, Shokin believes.

“I do not want to deal in unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that, yes, this was the case. They were being bribed. And the fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn’t that alone a case of corruption?” he questioned.

Biden publicly claimed credit for forcing out Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in US loan guarantees.

Hunter Biden was on Burisma’s payroll for up to $1 million per year as a member of the company’s board beginning in April 2014.

Shokin said he has “no doubts” that the since-disbanded company was engaged in illegal activity.

He said the probe into Burisma was “an ordinary case” with nothing particularly remarkable about it but it demanded “special attention” given the Bidens’ connection.

“It was on a list of cases to merit special attention because Hunter Biden was involved with Burisma and of course, his father, the vice president. Biden at the time oversaw Ukraine affairs for the White House,” he said.

An FBI informant file made public last month revealed that Zlochevsky claimed in 2016 that he was “coerced” into paying a $10 million bribe to the president and his son in exchange for Shokin’s ouster.

Purported internal Obama-Biden administration emails from 2016 published by Just the News this week showed that officials were shocked that Biden was pushing for Shokin’s ouster as a condition of US aid.

Hunter Biden’s former business partner Devon Archer, who also joined Burisma’s board in 2014, told the House Oversight Committee last month that Burisma added Hunter to its board so that “people would be intimidated to mess with them … legally.”

Archer confirmed that Joe Biden met with Burisma board advisor Vadym Pozharskyi in Washington in 2015, and spoke to Hunter on the phone with Pozharskyi and Zlochevsky present at a 2015 meeting in Dubai

Shokin says he was fired because his office “would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devin Archer and others.”

Joe Biden spoke on the phone four times in February and March 2016 with then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and once with Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk as he pushed for Shokin’s ouster.

Shokin’s office won a court order to seize Zlochevsky’s property on Feb. 2, 2016, the Kyiv Post reported at the time. Shokin was fired on March 29.