Key White House, National Security Council, and State Department officials were caught by surprise when they learned in January 2016 that then-Vice President Joe Biden had abruptly changed U.S. policy to require the firing of Ukrainian special prosecutor Viktor Shokin as a condition for Ukraine receiving $1 billion in U.S.-backed International Monetary Fund (IMF) loans, according to emails cited by House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and reviewed by The Epoch Times.
“There are State Department emails where they are, like, ‘Oh!’ surprised. There were people in the State Department saying, ‘Oh, Biden says they aren’t getting the money unless Shokin is fired,’ and they are surprised, saying, ‘Why did you do that, we didn’t talk about this; we didn’t plan that.’ So it was a total change from the consensus where the State Department was,” Mr. Jordan told reporters during a Nov. 4 question-and-answer session focused on the status of the House impeachment investigation of President Biden.
