Did Biden get the prosecutor fired to protect Burisma?

Biden told the Council on Foreign Relations in January 2018 that he had told Ukraine’s leaders in Kyiv, “You’re not getting the billion,” and given them six hours: “I said, I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.” [1]

That demand was U.S. policy, and not only Biden’s. In September 2015 the U.S. ambassador, Geoffrey Pyatt, said in a public speech that officials in the prosecutor general’s office had undermined a British case that froze $23 million belonging to Zlochevsky, by sending letters saying no case existed. The White House briefed reporters in December 2015 that the office needed reform. In February 2016 the IMF warned Ukraine about corruption, Shokin’s own deputy Vitaliy Kasko resigned calling the office “a hotbed of corruption,” and eight senators, including Republicans Rob Portman, Ron Johnson and Mark Kirk, wrote to Poroshenko urging reform of the prosecutor’s office. [2][3][4][5][6]

The Rada removed Shokin on 29 March 2016. The EU’s envoy called it “an opportunity to make a fresh start.” [6][7]

In a September 2019 statement prepared for the extradition case of the Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash in Austria, Shokin said he was dismissed because he was actively investigating Burisma and that the U.S. had demanded it.“The truth is that I was forced out because I was leading a wide-ranging corruption probe into Burisma,” he wrote. [1]

The Ukrainian record points the other way. Vitaliy Kasko, Shokin’s deputy, told Bloomberg the Burisma case “was shelved by Ukrainian prosecutors in 2014 and through 2015,” and that there was “no pressure from anyone from the United States” to close it. The Anti-Corruption Action Center said Shokin himself “dumped” the Burisma case; the British request for help that he ignored came before Hunter joined the board. [2]

Devon Archer testified that he was told by Burisma’s Washington consultants that Shokin was “under control” and that his firing was bad for the company, though he said he could not verify it. In 2020 Shokin persuaded a Kyiv court to order police to investigate Biden; police closed the case that September for lack of a crime, and a court rejected his appeal in February 2021. [3][4][5]