A federal judge removed a filing from former President Donald Trump’s legal team from the docket in his 2020 election interference case in Washington, D.C., that apparently included an affidavit from Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor fired for allegedly investigating a natural gas company. where President Biden Jr. served on the board.
US District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s lawyers’ motion to enter Shokin’s (misspelled “Victor Shorkin”) affidavit, citing federal rules that prohibit amicus briefs in criminal cases, as well as guidance from the DC courts.
“At this time, the court does not find it necessary to depart from ordinary procedure in allowing this filing,” Chutkan said in his Tuesday order.
Lawyers for the former president did not respond to a request for comment.
Chutkan also quashed six other petitions from Trump’s legal team, including other requests to file amicus curiae briefs (one from former judges and senior judicial officials), a motion to intervene and a writ of habeas corpus.
Biden, 80, who is currently Trump’s potential opponent in the 2024 election, boasted that he pressured then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in late 2015 to fire Shokin in exchange for the release of $1 billion. of dollars in US loan guarantees.
At the time, the Ukrainian prosecutor was investigating the owner of Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky. The then-second son, Hunter Biden, had served on the natural gas company’s board of directors since 2014, earning roughly $1 million a year.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied Trump’s lawyers’ motion to introduce Viktor Shokin’s affidavit, citing federal rules and D.C. court guidelines for amicus curiae briefs.
The Ukrainian prosecutor was fired for allegedly investigating a gas company where President Biden’s son Hunter was on the board. NurPhoto via Getty Images
“I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If they don’t fire the prosecutor, they won’t get the money,’” Biden told a Council on Foreign Relations panel in 2018 recounting his visit. “Well, son of a bitch. He was fired.”
Ukraine’s parliament subsequently voted to remove Shokin in March 2016.
Trump was impeached in 2019 for relying on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate corruption allegations against Biden over the matter.
Lawyers for the former president, including John Lauro (above), did not respond to a request for comment.AP
Democratic impeachment officials argued that Shokin’s removal was in line with US Ukraine policy, which Biden oversaw during the Obama administration.
In a rare interview broadcast on Fox News on Saturday, Shokin said he believed Biden and his son took bribes to force him out of office in March 2016.
Former President Donald Trump is currently Biden’s main opponent for the 2024 election.AP
“I don’t want to address unproven facts, but my firm personal conviction is that yes, that’s how it was. They were being bribed,” Shokin told host Brian Kilmeade. “And the fact that Joe Biden gave away a billion dollars in American money in exchange for my firing, my firing, isn’t that by itself a case of corruption?”
An FBI informant file released last month recorded claims by Zlochevsky that he was “forced” to pay Joe and Hunter $5 million each to avoid investigation by Kiev’s top law enforcement official.
The House Judiciary Committee is reportedly requesting Shokin’s testimony on the alleged corruption of the president.
In a rare interview broadcast Saturday, Shokin said he believed Biden and his son (above) took bribes to force him from office in March 2016.AP
Hunter’s former business partner, Devon Archer, who also served on Burisma’s board of directors, told the House Oversight Committee in July that the first son got a board seat so that “people intimidated into messing with them…legally.”
Archer also said he was not aware of any bribery allegations related to Hunter’s time at Burisma, but suggested the allegations may have stemmed from the high salaries both partners received.
Biden has boasted that he pressured Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in late 2015 to fire Shokin in exchange for $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees.
In a later interview with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, Archer said that Shokin was perceived as a “threat” to Burisma and expelled Zlochevsky from Ukraine shortly before his ouster.
As part of a separate case, lawyers for the House Ways and Means Committee filed an amicus curiae brief in federal court in Delaware that included testimony from two IRS whistleblowers alleging political interference by the Justice Department during the investigation. five years into Hunter Biden’s alleged tax crimes. .
In a rare interview that aired on Saturday, Shokin said he believed Biden and his son took bribes to force him out of office in March 2016. Fox News
US District Judge Maryellen Noreika denied a request by Hunter’s lawyers to keep the records sealed after the first-child plea deal blew up in court, and federal prosecutors withdrew the case to resubmit it elsewhere. district.
Trump’s federal trial for his alleged illegal attempts to stay in power will begin on March 4, 2024, the day before “Super Tuesday” in the Republican primary.
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Source: vtt.edu.vn