Ukrainian Investigators Open Probe Over Wiretapped Poroshenko, Biden Conversation- Reports

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 26th May, 2020) Ukraine's State Bureau of Investigation has opened a criminal probe over the wiretapping of a conversation between former President Petro Poroshenko and former US Vice President Joe Biden, the Ukrayinska Pravda newspaper reported on Tuesday, citing a source in law enforcement.

Ukrainian independent lawmaker Andriy Derkach this past week made materials that he claimed were recorded telephone conversations between Poroshenko and Biden public. Derkach claimed that he had obtained the recordings from unnamed investigative journalists and had passed them on to prosecutors.

The newspaper published a photograph of a Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations document announcing the launch of the probe. Investigators allege that the recording was obtained illegally and was not in the national interest.

The conversation between Poroshenko and Biden was reportedly on the topic of ex-Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin. During his tenure, Shokin investigated Ukrainian energy company Burisma, which employed Biden's son, Hunter, over money laundering allegations. Shokin was dismissed in the spring of 2016 and the probe was shelved. Biden later publicly admitted that he had threatened to withhold about $1 billion in US military aid to Ukraine unless the prosecutor general was not dismissed from his post.

US President Donald Trump asked his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy to reopen the investigation into Burisma and Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine, which eventually resulted in Trump being impeached as Democrat lawmakers accused the president of soliciting the Ukrainian authorities to influence the course of the upcoming November presidential election.