Posted by Centipede Nation Staff on May 19, 2020 7:17 pm

Phone Calls Leaked Of Biden And Ukraine’s Poroshenko Detailing $1 Billion “Quid Pro Quo”

At a press event held in Kyiv, Ukrainian MP Andriy Derkach released never-before-heard phone calls which detail a quid-pro-quo arrangement between Former Vice President Biden and Former Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko. In the calls, Biden asked that Poroshenko ensure the dismissal of then-Prosecutor Viktor Shokin as a condition for providing $1 billion in loan guarantees. In the end, Shokin was forced to resign despite not having any corruption charges or ties to any wrong-doing.

A video of Biden bragging about this arrangement has already been circulating for the past couple of years, but there hasn’t been direct proof of a quid-pro-quo until today. Directly out of the mouth of former Vice President Biden he says that he will sign a Billion dollar loan guarantee after a new Prosecutor General was installed. In this post we will detail each call and point out where there are conflicts of interest.

For a refresher let’s first watch when Biden admitted to getting the Ukrainian Prosecutor General Fired:

On December 3, 2015 then United States Secretary of State John Kerry and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko were on a call where Kerry asked Poroshenko to get rid of Bidens problem of replacing Prosecutor General Shokin. Kerry insisted that Shokin needed to be replaced because he was blocking the cleanup of the Prosecutor Generals’ Office. Poroshenko replied that he had set up a new department in order to weed out corruption, and that he would need to speak with Biden again in order to discuss it further.

KERRY: But before Vice President Biden Comes in, I just wanted to try to urge you to see if there is a way to get by this problem of replacing the Prosecutor General, you know, Shokin. Because to my perception he’s blocked the cleanup of the Prosecutor Generals’ Office, and I know the Vice President is very concerned about it. And I think it would be good to try and have some resolution of that before the Vice President comes, if it’s possible. And have real clarity as to the steps that we are going to take forward. I think his visit and his speech to the Rada are a good opportunity to showcase your successes as we continue forward, but…

POROSHENKO: And I think, I doubt that any other General Prosecutor can do that, but we provide absolutely transparent procedure for the selection commission. And their procedure was widely accepted both inside the country, including my opponents, all the NGO, all the parliamentary forces. They widely accepted as an absolutely transparent and effective situation. And as I promised the very next day before the 1st of December, exactly as I promised to the Vice President Biden, this person who was selected by the selection commission has appointed. Now, all of us should understand that the Prosecutor General Office has no any opportunity under the law to make any cases against corruption because it’s immediately goes already from the 1st of December, the day before yesterday, to the new Anti-Corruption Bureau and the new Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office. And I was very proud that Jean-Claude Junker, Angela Merkel, Francois Hollande and everybody welcome it as a very strong position of Anti-Corruption Prosecutor and General Prosecutor’s Office. For the Prosecutor position and for Inspector General. I am also proud that exactly as we agreed with your Ministry of Justice guys and your embassy, the Office of Inspector General is already established. It is coordinated not by General Prosecutor but the Deputy of General Prosecutor, Mr. Sakvarelidze, exactly as we agreed with the Vice President and with the Ambassador. For the continuation with the Prosecutor General Shokin and other things, I think I will speak with Vice President Biden. And I doubt that it would be theoretically even possible to make any decision without and arguments before.

KERRY: Vice President Biden is going to take up with you and will gave a more detailed discussion about it.

Two months later on February 18, 2016 there was a phone call between Poroshenko and Biden. Poroshenko tells Biden that he was able to get a resignation letter from Shokin despite him having done no wrongdoing.

POROSHENKO: Yesterday I met with General Prosecutor Shokin, 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.“

BIDEN: I agree.

A month later on March 22, 2016 Biden Tells Poroshenko that if he tells him there is a new government and new Prosecutor General he is prepared to do a public signing of the commitment for the Billion dollars.

BIDEN: Tell me that there is a new government and a new Prosecutor General. I am prepared to do a public singing of the commitment for the billion dollars. Again I’m not suggesting that that’s what you want or don’t want. I’m just suggesting that that’s what we’re prepared to do. And again, it wouldn’t be finalized until, you know, the IMF pieces are written.

POROSHENKO: Extremely strong motivation. One of the possible candidates was leader of my fraction – Lutsenko, who is the public figure. If you think that the political motivated figure would not be very good from your point of view, I recall this proposal. I do not propose, because nobody knows that I want to propose Lutsenko. In this situation I take all the political motivated figures out from this process.

BIDEN: All right, well, look, let me, let me, when you and I finish speaking, let me huddle with my team, talk over what you and I just talked about. I agree with you, there is a sense of urgency here.

On May 13, 2016 Biden confirms to Porishenko that since the Prosecutor General had been replaced he is ready to move forward on signing the billion dollar commitment.

BIDEN: Well you are doing very well, congratulations on getting the new Prosecutor General. I know there is a lot more that has to be done, but I really, I really think that’s, I think that’s good . And I understand your working with the Rada in the coming days on a number of additional laws to secure the IMF. But congratulations on installing the new Prosecutor General, it’s going to be critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage Shokin did. And I’m a man of my word. And now that the New Prosecutor General is in place, we’re ready to move forward to signing that new one billion dollar loan guarantee. And I don’t know hoe you want to go about that. I’m not going to be able to get to Kyiv anytime soon, I mean, next month or so. And, and I don’t know whether you could either sign it with our ambassador or if you came here, we could sign or if you want, we’re inviting Groysman here later this morning. Not for that purpose. We’re inviting him to Washington. And so I’ll leave it up tot you as to how you want that done and when you want it done.

POROSHENKO: First of all, thank you very much indeed for these words of support. Believe me, that it was a very tough challenge and a very difficult job. And Mrs. Tymoshenko and MY. Lyashko fraction tried to break this. Because we not only voted for the new Prosecutor General, which we do in a very short period of time, within one day we changed the law. By the way, in this law we are presenting the set, the new structure of the General Prosecutor’s Office, including the General Inspection as we agreed with you. And the second thing I immediately invited Lutsenko and said that he should contact your embassy and I would be very pleased if you will have a certain person, who can come either from Washington of whatever. I sent to the Jeffrey his name, and he was ready to come and to be assistant and adviser. He has a very good experience in the American system and he can be the person of trust within new prosecution system. I think this is exactly the right time to do that. And if he’s still ready to come and cooperate from the very first step, from the very first minute of the new Prosecutor, that is exactly what I’m looking for.

BIDEN: Well. let me, let me get in contact with the Justice Department and pursue that. I’ll get his name. And let me find out where that is. Because it is in our interest, obviously, to provide professional assistance as quick as we can. So this gets up and tarted it in the right direction. So I will move on as soon as we hang up. I’ll put that in train and I’ll get back to you as to what we are, what I am able to do.

POROSHENKO: Absolutely. Second… Thank you very much indeed, that is exactly what I’m looking for. The second thing is that I want to thank you that you give me your word that immediately when we change the legislation and I appoint the new Prosecutor General, and it would be Yuriy Lutsenko as we agreed on our previous meeting in Washington and when it happen, we can have this loan guarantee and thank you very much…

So what could be the damage that Shokin did that would need repairing? Biden has claimed in past interviews that he wanted the prosecutor fired because he was corrupt. But is that really the case? In September 2019 Shokin expressed in a sworn statement that On several occasions President Poroshenko asked me to have a look at the criminal case against Burisma and consider the possibility of winding down the investigative actions in respect of this company, but I refused to close this investigation.” Now this certainly would be a big issue for Biden. Why? Because his son was on the board of Burisma.

According an article written by John Solomon On September 26, 2019, even Busisma itself contradicted Biden.

Hundreds of pages of never-released memos and documents — many from inside the American team helping Burisma to stave off its legal troubles — conflict with Biden’s narrative. And they raise the troubling prospect that U.S. officials may have painted a false picture in Ukraine that helped ease Burisma’s legal troubles and stop prosecutors’ plans to interview Hunter Biden during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Also, in February this year Ukraine’s State Bureau of Investigation opened a criminal case concerning alleged pressure by then-U.S. vice president Joe Biden to get rid of Viktor Shokin, based on a criminal complaint filed by Shokin. Shokin’s claim was based off of Bidens public statements, and with that he had good reason to believe the former vice president ordered and instigated Shokin’s removal as Prosecutor General. These latest audio clips released seem to prove that fact, especially since Former President Poroshenko stated that they got rid of him despite there being no corruption or wrong doing.

Let’s not forget when John Kerry admitted that he was “deeply involved” and everyone in the administration was “involved in getting rid of that prosecutor”:

It appears the Biden/Ukraine phone calls were leaked amid recent news where Barr stated he doesn’t expect the DOJ to pursue Obama and Biden investigations. Of course Barr was only speaking about Flynn/SpyGate, but keep in mind that Trump’s personal lawyer Giuliani went to Ukraine and got interviews with key players and got deals done in order to get to the bottom of this. Trust Trump to play his cards right. He will force the DOJ’s hands whether the bureaucrats want to play or not.

BONUS: DEMs will claim that the IMF and the EU wanted Shokin gone too, but George Kent’s testimony also debunks that.

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