The White House is refusing to hand over all drafts of then-Vice President Joe Biden's December 2015 speech in Ukraine in which he called for the firing of Viktor Shokin, the Ukrainian prosecutor who was investigating corruption charges against energy firm Burisma, where Hunter Biden raked in $80,000 per month as a board member.
"For more than five months the White House has declined to authorize the production of these draft speeches to the Oversight Committee or to assert a valid privilege over them," a Jan. 31 letter to White House counsel Edward Siskel states.
The Oversight Committee is requesting the drafts of the speech as part of its Joe Biden impeachment inquiry.
The letter states that the Oversight Committee requested the drafts be released by the National Archives and Records Administration on Aug. 17, 2023, with the National Archives responding that within a week of receiving the request, "NARA was able to provide the White House with the full set of documents that cover this request."
Since August 24, 2023, one week after the letter was sent, "the White House has refused to permit NARA to provide the Oversight Committee with any documents related to the 2015 Ukraine speech delivered by then-Vice President Biden," the Oversight Committee said.
In an August 2023 interview with Fox News host Brett Baier, Shokin revealed that he was indeed fired at the behest of Joe Biden, and under the threat of $1 billion being withheld from Ukraine.
In a September 2019 speech at the Council on Foreign Relations, Biden bragged about getting Shokin fired: "If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch, he got fired."
🚨 BREAKING 🚨
The White House is REFUSING to hand over early drafts of President Biden’s 2015 Ukraine speech where he called for the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor, Viktor Shokin. These drafts are important as it is believed, based on public reporting, that the then-VP… pic.twitter.com/HXuUkVGBAM — Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) January 31, 2024
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