Hunter Biden helped devise plan to ‘close down’ Viktor Shokin’s investigation into Burisma, emails reveal

• Emails obtained by DailyMail.com bolster claims by ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor Shokin that Hunter and then VP Joe Biden had him fired over probe
• Hunter was warned in 2014 that Burisma founder Mykola Zlochevsky was under investigation in Ukraine
• Hunter then enlisted the help of his law firm Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, and pitched in with advice on gaining ‘intelligence’ on prosecutor’s office

Shocking emails reveal Hunter Biden helped coordinate a plan with Democratstrategists to ‘close down any cases’ against the owner of allegedly corrupt Ukrainian gas firm Burisma and ‘gain intelligence’ on the country’s top prosecutor’s office.

The emails bolster claims by ex-Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin that the First Son and his then-Vice President dad conspired to kill Shokin’s criminal investigation of Burisma.

Last weekend Fox News broadcast an interview with Shokin, where he repeated his previous allegations that Joe Biden got him fired over his Burisma probe.

Emails obtained by DailyMail.com from Hunter’s abandoned laptop lay bare how the First Son was involved in Burisma’s attempts to thwart law enforcement looking into its alleged corruption.

On May 12, 2014, the day before Hunter’s $1million-per-year appointment to Burisma’s board was publicly announced, executive Vadym Pozharskyi emailed the then-VP’s son from his personal Gmail account, warning that the firm’s owner Mykola Zlochevsky was likely under criminal investigation in Ukraine.

‘We urgently need your advice on how you could use your influence to convey a message / signal, etc to stop what we consider to be politically motivated actions,’ Pozharskyi wrote.

The Burisma executive said the company was the victim of blackmail.

‘In case we don’t cooperate i.e. provide money in cash the gas production business of [Zlochevsky] would be stopped,’ he wrote. 

‘After unsuccessful attempts to receive funds from our side, they proceeded with concrete actions.’

But at the time Zlochevsky was the subject of a legitimate money laundering investigation by the FBI and British intelligence services, for allegedly awarding his own companies lucrative gas contracts while he served as Ukraine’s environment minister and squirreling away $23million abroad.

Hunter got a partner at his then-law firm, Boies, Schiller, & Flexner, to devise a response for Burisma and also pitched in with advice on gaining ‘intelligence’ on new staff at the Prosecutor General’s office using investigative agency Nardello & Co.

‘It would be helpful to gain intelligence on who is leading the restructuring the individuals being considered for those posts,’ he wrote.

‘Agreed – that is part of what their human intel sources are seeking to learn,’ the Boies partner, Heather King, replied.

A senior US diplomat in Ukraine, George Kent, testified to Congress that a deputy in the Ukrainian prosecutor’s office told him Zlochevsky ended up paying a $7million bribe to Ukrainian justice officials in December 2014 to sabotage the US-UK probe.

There is no evidence on Hunter’s laptop that the First Son was involved in such an alleged bribe.

But when Shokin took over as the new Prosecutor General in 2015, Burisma faced fresh scrutiny, and again turned to Hunter for help.

Shokin had launched new investigations into the gas firm, took legal action against one of his staff for the alleged sabotage of Zlochevsky’s $23million money laundering case, and even got a court to temporarily freeze the Ukrainian oligarch’s assets.

Hunter hooked Burisma up with Washington DC consultancy Blue Star Strategies, run by former Clinton administration officials, and Pozharsky spelt out their role in a November 2, 2015 email.

He wrote the ‘ultimate purpose’ of their work was ‘to close down for any cases/pursuits against [Zlochevsky] in Ukraine.’

Pozharsky was unimpressed that Blue Star’s written proposal for the job didn’t include a promise to lobby top American diplomats – which would have required the firm to register with the US Justice Department as a foreign agent.

But Hunter and his partners indicated that the firm just didn’t want to put it in writing.

‘I would tell Vadym that this is definitely done deliberately to be on the safe and cautious side and that Sally [Painter, Blue Star COO] and company understand the scope and deliverables,’ Hunter’s business partner Eric Schwerin wrote privately to Hunter.

Pozharsky wrote: ‘If you and Devon [Archer, Hunter’s friend and fellow board member] feel comfortable that they will deliver what in real terms we are talking about, we should disregard the wording of the scope and move further with signing and starting actual work.’

‘Devon and I do feel comfortable with BS [Blue Star] and the ability of Sally & Karen [Tramontano, CEO] to deliver,’ Hunter replied on November 5, 2015.

The ex-Clinton staffers were hired and set about lobbying State Department officials on Burisma’s behalf. 

They were later investigated by federal law enforcement for failing to file under the Foreign Agents Registration Act, and belatedly lodged paperwork in 2021 to avoid prosecution.