The Ukrainian prosecutor who was notoriously fired under pressure from Joe Biden, Viktor Shokin, says the former vice president and his son were likely on the take from Ukrainian oligarchs.
Before his firing, Shokin was investigating Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company that paid Hunter Biden a seven-figure salary.
Joe Biden, using profanities, notoriously bragged about orchestrating Shokin's firing by threatening to withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees from Ukraine.
“I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden said. “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”
The claim that Joe Biden personally profited from his son's dealings in Ukraine - or that he had Shokin fired to protect those illicit gains - has been baselessly dismissed as a "conspiracy theory" for years by the leftist mainstream media.
But Shokin told Fox News' One Nation that he suspects - although he cannot confirm - that Biden and his son were bribed.
“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,” Shokin said.
“And the fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in US money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn’t that alone a case of corruption?”
Biden's defenders have long claimed that Shokin was widely perceived as corrupt by Western institutions.
But newly released e-mails show that the Obama administration was blindsided by Biden's push to sack Shokin.
None other than Eric Ciaramella - the so-called "whistleblower" who set off President Tump's first impeachment over his efforts to investigate Biden's Ukraine ties - expressed shock, writing he was "impressed" with Shokin.
For his part, Shokin insisted that he was fired for one reason only - his investigation threatened the Bidens and their financial interests.
"I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then-Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,” Shokin said.
Given the notorious corruptions problem in Ukraine, some might be skeptical of Shokin's words - but he's not the only source tying the Bidens with corruption in Ukraine.
Hunter's former business partner Devon Archer told the House that Joe Biden was the "brand" that his father sold abroad and that Burisma wanted help with legal "pressure," although Archer did not corroborate the bribery claims.
Shokin said that Burisma was involved in "illegal activities" and the case warranted scrutiny because of the company's relationship with the vice president of the United States.
“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.
Democrats continue to furiously insist the scandal has been "debunked" - by who, exactly, Democrats can't say.
