Ukraine´s Prosecutor General said on Friday that his office would review the case of an energy company linked to Hunter Biden – just a day after President Donald Trump called for the country to investigate the Bidens.
The prosecutor said he is reviewing all the cases that were closed by his predecessors – including several related to the owner of gas company Burisma Holdings where former Vice President Joe Biden´s son sat on the board of directors and was reportedly compensated $50,000 a month.
The developments in Ukraine come after newly-revealed Ukraine texts show Trump administration officials discussing efforts to get a probe and push a set of talking points – including by leveraging a presidential visit.
President Trump, speaking on the South Lawn of the White House Thursday, said Ukraine should investigate the Bidens, while also saying China should probe Hunter Biden's business dealings there.
The president suggested on that China showered $1.5 billion on Hunter Biden in order to influence his father and win favorable trade deals with the United States.
House Democrats are conducting an impeachment inquiry of the president after a whistle-blower complaint detailed the president's July phone call to the president Ukraine where he pushed for a probe of his Democratic rival.
Trump defended his public call for foreign help investigating his rival a day after his initial comments in response to a question by DailyMail.com. His response fueled the uproar over his earlier Ukraine request, which helped jump-start a Democratic impeachment inquiry.
'As President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries. It is done all the time. This has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This does have to do with their corruption!' Trump tweeted Friday.
Trump said Thursday that if Ukraine 'were honest about it,' it 'would start a major investigation against the Bidens. It's a very simple answer.'
'Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens,' Trump insisted, 'because what happened with the Bidens in China is just about as bad.
'President Zelensky – if it were me I would recommend they start an investigation into the Bidens because nobody has any doubt that they aren't crooked,' he added, speaking of the president of Ukraine.
Ukrainian prosecutor Ruslan Ryaboshapka told reporters in Kyiv that prosecutors are auditing all the cases that were closed or dismissed by former prosecutors, including several related to Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the gas company Burisma that hired Hunter Biden in 2014, at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration´s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv.
Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.
'We are now reviewing all the cases that were closed or split into several parts or were investigated before, in order to be able to rule to reverse those cases where illegal procedural steps were taken,' Ryaboshapka said.
Asked by The Associated Press about Trump´s comment Thursday that the U.S. has an 'absolute right' to ask foreign leaders to investigate corruption cases, Zelensky said that Ukraine is 'open' and that all the cases under investigation are 'transparent.'
The Prosecutor General´s Office later said that among the cases they are reviewing, there are 15 where Zlochevsky is mentioned. None of the Zlochevsky-related cases has been revived yet, they said.
They did not specify how many, if any, were related to Hunter Biden´s work at Burisma.
Ryaboshapka was mentioned in the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who assured Trump that Ryaboshapka was 'his man' and that he would resume investigations into Burisma.
The prosecutor general insisted on Friday that he did not feel any pressure over the Burisma case.
'Not a single foreign or Ukrainian official or politician has called me or tried to influence my decisions regarding specific criminal cases,' he said.
A whistleblower last month revealed that Trump in a phone call asked Zelensky to resume the probe into Joe Biden and his son. The July 25 call has since triggered an impeachment inquiry against Trump.
The newly-announced action in Ukraine comes amid additional revelations about Trump administration efforts to push an investigation – including by leveraging a presidential visit.
Trump 's aides told the Ukrainian president to investigate Hunter Biden and the 2016 election if he wanted a visit to Washington, 23 pages of texts released by Adam Schiff and House Democrats revealed.
Kurt Volker, Trump's former envoy to Ukraine, told an aide to Zelensky that the U.S. would only 'nail down' a date once the Ukrainian president promised to 'get to the bottom of what happened' - reference to an unproven theory Joe Biden, as vice president, interfered in a Ukrainian investigation into a gas company that had Hunter Biden on its board.
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