(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) One of the Democratic claims behind President Donald Trump’s 2019 impeachment was that his efforts to scrutinize Burisma and its ties to Hunter Biden were politically motivated and not driven by legitimate concerns about potential corruption. Newly released documents appear to challenge that narrative.
A trove of declassified memos spanning 37 pages appears to show that former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, a key witness in the first impeachment, received repeated briefings and communications about U.S. concerns involving Burisma.
The documents, released Thursday by the White House Government Transparency Task Force and reported first by Just the News, contradict what Yovanovitch told lawmakers in the impeachment inquiry: that concerns about Burisma “just wasn’t a big deal” during her tenure as ambassador.
Despite being appointed under the Obama administration, Yovanovitch continued serving as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine until 2019, well into Trump’s first term. She was ultimately recalled after facing damning accusations of working to undermine Trump’s Ukraine policy.
She retired in May 2020.
Democrats impeached Trump after a whistleblower leaked information about a conversation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy involving potential investigations into Burisma and its ties to Hunter Biden.
Republican lawmakers had accused Burisma of being part of a broader political influence-peddling involving Joe Biden during his tenure as vice president.
Specifically, they pointed to evidence suggesting that Joe Biden forced the ouster of Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin because of Shokin’s investigation of Burisma. At the time, Burisma was paying Hunter Biden $50,000 a month for consulting work, despite his lack of experience in the natural gas industry.
Meanwhile, Democrats claimed that Trump urged Zelenskyy to investigate Burisma in an effort to damage Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and that there was no evidence of wrongdoing or concerns about corruption.
The newly released White House documents, however, appear to show that Yovanovitch and her aides exchanged dozens of communications concerning Hunter Biden, Burisma and its founder, Mykola Zlochevsky.
According to Just the News, the State Department was also aware of efforts by Burisma to secure a U.S. visa for Zlochevsky despite his ban from the country.
