Report: Judge orders Joe Biden listed as alleged perpetrator of crime

Joe Biden (MSNBC video screenshot)

A judge in Ukraine has ordered that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden be listed as the alleged perpetrator of a crime in the firing of the state prosecutor who was investigating the company that paid Hunter Biden to serve on its board

John Solomon of Just the News reports District Court Judge S. V. Vovk in Kiev late last month ordered the nation's law-enforcement services formally to list the fired prosecutor, Victor Shokin, as the victim of an alleged crime.

According to an official English translation of the ruling obtained by Solomon, the alleged crime was by "the former U.S. vice president."

WND previously reported Ukraine launched a criminal case against Biden alleging he pressured authorities to force the resignation of Shokin. The Interfax-Ukraine news agency, quoting Shokin's lawyer, reported the country's State Bureau of Investigations opened the case under an appeal by Shokin.

Shokin's lawyer, Oleksandr Teleshetsky, said at a press conference Feb. 27 that the charge is interfering in the work of an official of a law enforcement agency.

Shokin included Biden's name in his motion, which prompted the opening of the case, Interfax said. But the investigation itself mentions only a "U.S. citizen."

Biden is on video, at a Council on Foreign Relations meeting, boasting that he got Ukraine's president to fire Shokin by threatening to withhold $1 billion in U.S. aid:

Is it right to list Joe Biden as the alleged perpetrator this crime?

The order from the judge to list Biden is the "new legal twist" in the "infamous story," Just the News explained.

"The court had previously ordered the Prosecutor General's Office and the State Bureau of Investigations in February to investigate Shokin's claim that he was fired in spring 2016 under pressure from Biden because he was investigating Burisma Holdings, the natural gas company where Biden’s son Hunter worked," Just the News said.

Subsequently, the court ruled there was enough evidence to investigate Shokin's allegation that Biden's pressure on then-President Petro Poroshenko was unlawful interference in Shokin's work.

Law enforcement agencies declined to publicly name Biden as the alleged perpetrator and only said it was an unnamed America.

Vovk rejected that, ruling "a competent person of the Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine who conducts procedural management in criminal proceedings No. 62020000000000236 dated February 24, 2020 to enter information into the Unified register of pre-trial investigations … a summary of facts that may indicate the commission of a criminal offense under Paragraph 2 of Article 343 of the Criminal procedure code of Ukraine on criminal proceedings No. 62020000000000236 dated February 24, 2020, namely: information on interference in the activities of the former Prosecutor General of Ukraine Shokin, Viktor Mykolaiovych performed by citizen of the United States of America Joseph Biden, former U.S. Vice President."

Just the News reported a lawyer for Shokin, Oleksandr Ivanovych Teleshetskyi, said officials have yet to comply with the court order.

The lawyer told the publication: "Viktor Shokin publicly appealed to the president of Ukraine with a request to properly respond to illegal inaction in the investigation of criminal cases that are open against Joseph Biden. Let me remind you that they were discovered precisely as a result of the statement of Viktor Shokin."

The Biden-Ukraine conflict of interest was at the center of the partisan impeachment of President Trump. Trump's request in a July 2019 telephone call that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky look into the matter was deemed an abuse of power by House Democrats who voted to impeach the president. The White House argued Hunter Biden's profting of more than $3 million from a corrupt Ukrainian company while his father was in charge of U.S.-Ukraine policy was a legitimate concern.

Just the News reported Shokin "has alleged in a court affidavit he was told he was fired because he refused to stand down his investigation of alleged corruption by Burisma and after he planned to call Hunter Biden as a witness to question him about millions of dollars in payments his American firm received from the Ukraine gas company."

This week, Ukrainian parliamentarian Andrii Derkach released audio recordings alleged to be conversations between Poroshenko and Biden. Among them are purported discussions about Biden's successful effort to pressure Poroshenko to fire Shokin while he was investigating the company for which son Hunter Biden served as a board member.

Derkach, reported RT.com, said he obtained the audio from investigative journalists who claimed Poroshenko personally recorded the calls. The recordings have not been independently verified, the Russian news outlet said.

In one call, Poroshenko tells Biden he has "good news," saying that on the previous day he went to Shokin's office and asked him to resign. One hour later, the country's top prosecutor delivered his letter of resignation.

"Great!" Biden replies.

See a video of the presentation of the phone calls obtained by Ukrainian parliamentarian Andrii Derkach: