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Mike Carpenter, who served as a foreign policy adviser to the then-vice president, told USA TODAY that Shokin "never went after any corrupt individuals at all" and "never prosecuted any high-profile cases of corruption."įact check: Claims that Hunter Biden received $3.5M from Russia are unproven, lack contextĬharlie Kupchan, who was a special assistant to President Barack Obama and a senior director for European Affairs on the National Security Council, said anti-corruption efforts were "a big part of our diplomacy" with Ukraine, since "it was that corruption that allowed Russia to manipulate the country politically and economically."Īs a result, Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid as "a stick to move Ukraine forward," Kupchan said. "He was acting alongside our European allies. It was because Shokin wasn't pursuing corruption among the country's politicians.Īs European and American diplomats pressed Ukraine to clean up its corruption, they focused on Shokin's leadership of the Prosecutor General's Office, which he took over in February 2015. It's true that Joe Biden leveraged $1 billion in aid to persuade Ukraine to oust its top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, in March 2016. But it wasn't because Shokin was investigating Burisma. Secure America Now did not respond to a request from USA TODAY for comment.įact check: Joe Biden's childhood apartment later became Section 8 housing Joe Biden leveraged aid to remove top prosecutor as part anti-corruption efforts The meme has been shared more than 9,000 times since Oct. "VP Biden threatened to withhold 1 billion dollars from Ukraine to save his son's job," reads a meme posted to Facebook by Secure America Now. While former Vice President Joe Biden oversaw foreign policy in Ukraine, his son Hunter Biden served on the board of Burisma Holdings, the largest gas company in the fledgling democracy.ĭespite a recently concluded investigation by Senate Republicans that found no wrongdoing by the Bidens, claims to the contrary have continued to circulate on social media.
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Just the FAQs, USA TODAY The claim: Joe Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion from Ukraine to assist his son, Hunter Biden
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