Another layer has been added to the mysterious “whistleblower” story that has taken over the news in the past few days.
A Ukrainian official has stated that his country is willing to investigate the activities of Hunter Biden, son of former vice president Joe Biden, in Ukraine, but only if an “official request” is made by President Donald Trump.
Aid offered
Anton Geraschenko, a senior adviser to Ukraine’s interior minister, made his remarks to the Daily Beast before the whistleblower story went public. He also confirmed them later.
What the investigation would be looking into is Hunter Biden’s role as a board member of the Ukranian natural gas firm Burisma. This would have been in 2014, at the same time that his father was vice president and threatened to withhold $1 billion in U.S. loans if Ukraine did not fire a corrupt prosecutor who was investigating the man in charge of Burisma. The younger Biden worked with Burisma for five years before quitting in April.
Geraschenko told the Daily Beast that his boss would look into the matter “as soon as there is an official request,” but noted that “currently there is no open investigation.”
“We do not investigate Biden in Ukraine, since we have not received a single official request to do so,” he said.
The whistleblower
This week, news got out that an unidentified member of the intelligence community had submitted a complaint in August to Michael Atkinson, the inspector general for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. The complaint was reportedly about a communication between President Trump and a foreign leader in which there was talk of a “promise.”
It has been reported that the communication involved the Ukraine. Geraschenko’s comments, thus, may point us in the right direction.
Some believe that the key is a phone call that Trump made on July 25 to congratulate Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky on his election.
But, until further information is acquired, we will remain in the dark about exactly what happened.
Trump responds
On Friday, President Trump commented on the speculation about the July 25 phone call, saying that his talks with world leaders are “always appropriate,” and adding that “someone ought to look into Joe Biden.”
Geraschenko told the Daily Beast that he thinks Trump is looking for revenge. “Clearly, Trump is now looking for kompromat (Russian for revenge) to discredit his opponent Biden, to take revenge for his friend Paul Manafort, who is serving seven years in prison,” he said.
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