A judge in Kiev, Ukraine has ordered that former Vice President Joe Biden’s name be formally listed in a case alleging Biden pressured the then-president of Ukraine to fire a prosecutor who was looking into a company employing Biden’s son, Hunter, according to released English transcripts of Ukrainian court papers.
The formal court listing releasing Biden's name in the legal probe, was published by John Solomon’s Just The News website. Previously the documents had listed the potential defendant simply as ‘unnamed American.’
The public naming of Biden in the investigation comes at a time when leaked phone conversations between the former vice president and then-Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko have been made public by a Ukrainian lawmaker.
The New York Post reports:
Edited recordings of the calls were played at a news conference Tuesday in Kiev by Andriy Derkach, who has claimed he has proof showing that Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian natural gas company that employed Biden’s son Hunter Biden, paid then-Vice President Joe Biden $900,000 in lobbying fees.
Details of the conversations between Biden and Poroshenko have been previously reported.
In one of the recorded conversations Biden and Poroshenko discuss Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin’s ouster and the appointment of his replacement.
“It’s going to be critical for him to work quickly to repair the damage that Shokin did,” Biden said in the call. “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 $1 billion loan guarantee.”
Shokin has taken legal action in the Ukraine, but law enforcement agencies in the country had refused to name Biden in their probe, instead listing an ‘unnamed American.’
The judge’s ruling has now ordered Biden to be officially named in the probe of Shokin's ouster.
In the U.S., the Senate Homeland Security Committee authorized a subpoena on Wednesday, in its probe of the work that Hunter Biden did for Ukrainian Burisma Holdings.
The subpoena is for testimony and documents from Blue Star Strategies, which represented Burisma Holdings, the Ukrainian natural-gas company where Hunter Biden served on the board while his father was vice president.