JOE BIDEN: Former Vice President of the United States during the Obama administration. Currently he is a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. He represents the centrist elements of the Democratic Party. He led in early polling but is currently facing a strong challenge from a surging Elizabeth Warren. HUNTER BIDEN: Son of Joe
Biden. A lawyer by profession. He sat on the board of Burisma Holdings from 2014 to 2019. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY: For-
mer comedian turned politician, who was elected president of the Ukraine in April 2019. He defeated the incumbent president Petro Poroshenko by winning nearly 73 percent of the popular vote. He is the first Jewish president of the Ukraine. BURISMA HOLDINGS: a large
privately held Ukrainian gas group that was owned by Mykola Zlochevsky, a former Ukranian Minister of Ecology. In 2014, the then–vice president’s son Hunter Biden joined the board of Burisma Holdings. At around the same time, Zlochevsky came under investigation for corrupt business dealings. VICTOR SHONKIN: In 2015,
Shonkin was appointed Prosecutor General of Ukraine. He was tasked with investigating Burisma Holdings, Shonkin himself was accused of being inept and corrupt. The European Union (EU), International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the United States government all demanded his ouster. In December 2018, Vice President Biden told Ukrainian leaders to fire Shonkin or lose $1 billion in U.S. loan guarantees. Biden would later boast that his
threats were successful in getting Shonkin removed from his post. In March 2016, the Ukranian parliament voted to remove Shonkin from his position. Yuri Lutsenko replaced him as Prosecutor General. In January 2017, the probes of Burisma Holdings were formally closed. THE CLAIM OF MISCONDUCT: In March 2018, Con-
servative investigative journalist Peter Schweizer published a book that alleged corruption by Hunter Biden during his time in Ukraine. In a May 2019 interview with FOX News, President Trump claimed that Biden had pressured the Ukrainian government to fire Shonkin to protect his son Hunter. This claim or variants thereof have been repeated in many conservative news outlets. Shonkin himself has reinforced these claims by claiming that his investigation of Burisma (and Hunter Biden) was the only reason for his firing. However, both American and Ukranian officials have stated that the Burisma probe was inactive at the time of Shonkin’s firing. Furthermore, there is no evidence that the Burisma investigation focused on the actions of Hunter Biden. THE PHONE CALL: In July 2019, President Trump held a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Zelensky. In this phone call, he asked Zelensky to help investigate the actions of the Bidens. During the phone call Trump instructed Zelensky to be in touch with Attorney General William Barr and Rudy Giuliani. This is highly unusual, as the normal address for a foreign government is the State Department — and not the Attorney General’s office or the president’s personal lawyer. According to some me-
dia reports of the whistleblower complaint, the phone call also included an inappropriate “promise” made by President Trump. However, the details of the phone call released to date do not show evidence of any promise being made. THE WHISTLEBLOWER: The anonymous whistleblower is a member of the U.S. intelligence community. The whistleblower was concerned that President Trump was improperly using the power of his office and the force of the U.S. government to pressure Ukrainian officials into providing him with dirt on his political opponent Joe Biden. On August 12, he followed procedure and filed a complaint with the Intelligence Community Inspector General. MICHAEL ATKINSON: Atkin-
son is the Intelligence Community Inspector General. Upon receiving the report, he was tasked with investigating whether the concerns in the complaint were credible and a matter of urgent concern. Atkinson determined that the issue was of urgent concern, thereby triggering a legally required disclosure to Congress. JOSEPH MAGUIRE: Maguire
is the acting Director of National Intelligence. He assumed this position after the resignation of Dan Coates. Maguire refused to hand over the complaint to Congress, citing confidential and potentially privileged information. On September 13, 2019, House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff subpoenaed Maguire to force him to disclose the contents of the complaint. On September 24, the Republican-controlled Senate passed a non-binding 100-0 resolution calling on the administra-
October 3, 2019 / THE MONSEY VIEW / 103 www.themonseyview.com / 845.600.8484