John Solomon, a journalist known for allying himself with former President Donald Trump, published documentation that “inadvertently detonated” the impeachment case that House Republicans are attempting to assemble against President Joe Biden, as explained by Matt Gertz of Media Matters for America.
Solomon published a document produced in the federal government in tandem with a trip taken by Joe Biden when he was vice president to Ukraine, and this document indicates — repeatedly, actually — that it was the approach of the U.S. government as an entity to seek the removal of Viktor Shokin from a leading prosecutorial position in Ukraine. Republicans have incessantly alleged at least the possibility — if not much more — of Biden as vice president having pushed for Shokin’s removal and specifically benefiting business interests in which his son, Hunter Biden, was involved. In reality, additional evidence has already emerged indicating that Shokin was not actively investigating Burisma (the company of interest where Hunter was participating) when he left.
“But the hypothesis is further demolished by a document published last month by — of all people — the fabulist John Solomon, which indisputably confirms that at the time of that meeting, it was the policy of the U.S. government to seek that prosecutor’s removal,” Gertz said. And the document is precise. “There is wide agreement that anti-corruption must be at the top of this list, and that reforms must include an overhaul of the Prosecutor General’s Office including removal of Prosecutor General Shokin, who is widely regarded as an obstacle to fighting corruption, if not a source of the problem,” the materials said. A substantially similar sentiment is repeated elsewhere.
Solomon has responded by highlighting instead the factor of Biden conditioning certain benefits to Ukraine on Shokin’s departure… but evidence has also indicated that such was in line with other interests in the U.S. government, not something Biden was simply pursuing on his own, no matter the precise contours of the then-vice president implementing the plan. Perhaps Republicans should be more concerned about the real-world specifics of the past situation when Trump, as president, sought to condition benefits for the country on Ukrainian authorities undertaking investigations that could politically benefit him, as it’s been infamously argued.
