Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) has brushed off allegations that fellow democratic presidential primary candidate Joe Biden leveraged his power as vice president to further his son’s business interests in Ukraine.
When pressed about the allegations in a Friday interview, Warren told the Wall Street Journal, “I know that everyone wants to try to drag in other people. But what happened with Ukraine is about Donald Trump.”
Joe Biden’s son Hunter sat on the board of Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma Holdings from 2014 to early 2019. Burisma was the subject of an ongoing corruption investigation by then Ukrainian prosecutor general Victor Shokin.
However, Shokin himself was also accused of corruption. In 2016, Joe Biden, then vice president, pressured Ukraine to fire Shokin at the behest of U.S. and European Union officials. President Trump and his private lawyer Rudy Giuliani have alleged a conflict of interest regarding Joe and Hunter Biden.
Joe Biden has aggressively denied any wrongdoing when questioned about his and his son’s actions in Ukraine on the campaign trail.
Warren, while refusing to attack Biden, has made promises to root out corruption in Washington a centerpiece of her campaign.
Trump, meanwhile, became the subject of an impeachment inquiry by House Democrats after it emerged that he urged the current Ukrainian President to investigate the Bidens’ alleged corruption. Democrats have alleged Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country to conduct an investigation that would damage his political rival.
Warren had called to begin impeachment proceedings on President Trump in April of this year, even before Trump pushed Ukraine to look into the Bidens.