The Wall Street Journal - 08.11.2019

A4| Friday, November 8, 2019 PWLC101112HTGKRFAM123456789OIXX **** THE WALL STREET JOURNAL.

Burisma Holdings’ cam-
paign to clean up its image in
the West reached beyond the
2014 hiring of Hunter Biden,
son of the then-U.S. vice presi-

dent, to include other well-
connected operatives in Wash-
ington, according to officials
in both countries and govern-
ment records.
The Ukrainian company,
owned by tycoon Mykola
Zlochevsky, also hired a lobby-
ist with close ties to then-Secre-
tary of State John Kerry, as well
as a consulting group founded
by top officials in the Clinton
administration that specialized
in preparing former Soviet-bloc
countries to join NATO.
Soon the efforts bore fruit.
With the help of a New York-
based lawyer, Mr. Zlochevsky’s
U.S. consultants argued to
Ukrainian prosecutors that
criminal cases against the com-
pany should be closed because
no laws had been broken.
Burisma later became a
sponsor of a Washington think
tank, the Atlantic Council,
whose experts are often cited
on energy and security policy
in the former Soviet Union.
When President Trump was
elected, the company brought a
former Central Intelligence
Agency official from the
George W. Bush administration
onto its board.
Today, Mr. Zlochevsky splits
his time between London, the
United Arab Emirates and Mo-
naco, according to acquain-
tances of his. Efforts to reach

ByThomas Grovein

Kyiv, Ukraine, andAlan

Cullisonin Washington

him weren’t successful.

During the crucial years of

Mr. Zlochevsky’s image cam-

paign, Vice President Joe Biden

was the point man for U.S. and

international efforts to combat

Ukrainian corruption. Mr.

Trump and his allies have

called the younger Mr. Biden’s

serving on Burisma’s board a

corrupt arrangement given the

role of his father, who is now a

front-runner for the Demo-

cratic presidential nomination.

The Bidens deny any impro-

priety, and there is no evidence

to suggest they broke any laws.

Hunter Biden has said his ac-

ceptance of the seat showed

“poor judgment.”

Mr. Trump pressed the presi-

dent of Ukraine in a July 25 call

to work with his personal law-

yer, Rudy Giuliani, and Attorney

General William Barr to investi-

gate Burisma and the Bidens.

That prompted a whistleblower

complaint that triggered the

impeachment investigation now

being pursued by House Demo-

crats, who allege Mr. Trump

abused his power to promote

his own re-election prospects.

The president has called the

phone call “perfect” and the in-

vestigation a “witch hunt.”

A native of Kyiv, Mr.

Zlochevsky founded his natural

gas company in Ukraine in

2002, 11 years after the fall of

the Soviet Union, and twice

served in top Ukrainian gov-

ernment positions that over-

saw the allocation of natural

gas licenses—first under Presi-

dent Leonid Kuchma from

2003 to 2005, as chairman of

the since-disbanded State Com-

mittee for Natural Resources,

and later under President Vik-

tor Yanukovych, as ecology and

natural resources minister.

A review of Mr. Zlochevksy’s

activities by The Wall Street

Journal found his oil and gas

production business flourished

by winning crucial permits

while he was in government

service. Burisma has said that

all its licenses were issued in

accordance with Ukrainian law

and that there was no conflict

of interest.

Mr. Zlochevsky’s campaign

to burnish Burisma’s image

typified a strategy among the

newly rich tycoons of the for-

mer Soviet Union, who sought

to keep their grip on properties

they had acquired under ques-

tionable circumstances.

Mr. Zlochevsky’s felt his for-

tunes were threatened in 2014

when violent street protests

erupted in Kyiv and Mr. Yanuk-

ovych fled to Moscow. Mr.

Zlochevsky left, too, fearing

retribution against those asso-

ciated with the former govern-

ment. But Vadym Pozharsky,

his longtime assistant, re-

mained in Kyiv where he

worked on building bridges

with the West.

In January 2014, Burisma

hired as a director the former

president of Poland, Alexander

Kwasniewski. By April, the

company invited Hunter Biden,

who was working with a U.S.

law firm, to the board. Mr. Bi-

den, who was then 44 years

old, was paid at least $50,000 a

month for his services, one per-

son close to the company said.

Burisma didn’t respond to

emailed questions.

Mr. Biden’s hire gave the

company some Western re-

spectability, said a Western

businessman familiar with the

company, but it was only a

small part of a broader effort

to win favor in Washington. At

the time, the U.S. government

and its European allies were

pushing for a corruption

clampdown in Kyiv.

“Hunter was part of it, but

not the linchpin,” this business-

man said, adding that the com-

pany “never said they had ac-

cess to Joe Biden or controlled

Joe Biden. If they did, they

would have bragged about it.”

The month after Mr. Biden

joined the board, Burisma

hired a lobbyist, David Leiter of

Washington lobbying firmM.L.

Strategies, to promote the

company’s interests in Wash-

ington, according to govern-

ment records. Mr. Leiter was

John Kerry’s chief of staff

when Mr. Kerry was a U.S. sen-

ator from Massachusetts.

In 2014, investigators in

London had frozen $23.5 mil-

lion of Mr. Zlochevsky’s funds

and launched an investigation

on suspicion of money launder-

ing. Although the case was

later closed with no charges

being filed, it spawned sepa-

rate investigations in Ukraine.

At the time, the Ukraine

prosecutor’s office was widely

criticized by diplomats and in-

ternational organizations for

being corrupt. Overseeing in-

vestigations in Ukraine from

early 2015 was Prosecutor Gen-

eral Viktor Shokin. Both the

U.S. and European govern-

ments were urging his dis-

missal. Near the end of 2015,

Vice President Biden threat-

ened to hold back $1 billion in

loan guarantees to Ukraine if

the prosecutor wasn’t fired,

which he was soon afterward.

Mr. Trump and his allies

have cited Mr. Biden’s remarks

as evidence he was seeking to

shield Burisma from investiga-

tors. A senior Ukrainian gov-

ernment official disputed that

last month, saying, “There

were a million reasons to get

rid of Shokin.” Mr. Shokin de-

clined to comment.

Mr. Biden has defended his

and his son’s actions, saying

last month: “Look, my son did

nothing wrong. I did nothing

wrong. I carried out the policy

of the United States govern-

ment in rooting out corruption

in Ukraine.”

In November 2015, Burisma

hired Washington-based con-

sulting firmBlue Star Strate-

gies, which has been lauded in

the West for its work to help

former Soviet countries pre-

pare for NATO consideration.

Its founders: Sally Painter, a se-

nior adviser to the Commerce

Department in the Clinton ad-

ministration, and Karen Tra-

montano, a deputy chief of staff

in the Clinton White House.

At about the time of Mr.

Shokin’s dismissal, Blue Star

helped Burisma hire lawyer

John D. Buretta, who argued

before prosecutors in Ukraine

that cases against Burisma

should be closed, according to

one Ukrainian official and oth-

ers familiar with the matter.

Mr. Buretta didn’t respond

to questions via email and

phone.

The Burisma cases were

closed toward the end of 2016.

Ukraine officials said that deci-

sion was made by the new pros-

ecutor general, Yuri Lutsenko.

He declined to comment.

Blue Star also approached

the Atlantic Council in 2016 as

a possible donor. Fred Kempe,

president and chief executive

of the council, said the think

tank rejected the overture be-

cause of Burisma’s outstanding

criminal cases in Ukraine.

The council revisited the is-

sue, he said, when Burisma re-

ported that the cases were

dismissed. They signed a

three-year contract under

which Burisma has donated

$100,000 a year to the think

tank’s Eurasia Center, whose

declared mission is to defend

Ukraine’s national sovereignty

and advocate for economic

and political change, including

combating corruption.

—Brody Mullins

contributed to this article.

Ukraine Energy Firm’s U.S. Hires Go Beyond Biden’s Son

PAUL MORIGI/GETTY IMAGES FOR WORLD FOOD PROGRAM USA

Hunter Biden joined

Burisma as it was

trying to clean up its

image in the West.

U.S. NEWS

channel to engage with

Ukraine that existed outside of

normal diplomatic protocol.

Mr. Kent also raised con-

cerns in correspondence to

colleagues about efforts by Mr.

Giuliani and others outside the

State Department to recall

Marie Yovanovitch, the

Ukraine envoy. Ms. Yovano-

vitch testified last month that

Mr. Trump sought for more

than a year to remove her

from her post before she ulti-

mately was recalled in May.

“Mr. Giuliani was almost

unmissable starting in mid-

March,” Mr. Kent testified, ac-

cording to the transcript. He

described Mr. Giuliani as “car-

rying on a campaign for sev-

eral months full of lies and in-

correct information” on

television and on social media,

adding that his “assertions

and allegations against former

Ambassador Yovanovitch were

without basis, untrue, period.”

Mr. Giuliani didn’t immedi-

ately respond to a request for

comment.

Mr. Kent, a career foreign-

service official, also told in-

vestigators that he had raised

concerns in 2015 with a senior

official at the White House

about then-Vice President Joe

Biden’s son being on the board

of a Ukrainian natural-gas

company, because of concerns

about the potential optics of a

conflict of interest.

Mr. Kent is scheduled to

testify next week in public

hearings, along with Bill Tay-

lor, the acting ambassador to

Ukraine, and Ms. Yovanovitch.

Democrats believe all three

could provide compelling tes-

timony about the Trump ad-

ministration’s efforts to press

the new Ukrainian president to

undertake investigations de-

sired by Mr. Trump.

“Here’s why George Kent

matters: He and his colleagues

recognized the impropriety of

Trump’s Ukraine pressure

campaign to undertake politi-

cally-motivated investiga-

tions,” House Intelligence

Committee Chairman Adam

Schiff (D., Calif.) said on Twit-

ter. “He corroborates testi-

mony from numerous other of-

ficials, and he documented it.”

The impeachment inquiry is

centered on the efforts by

Messrs. Trump and Giuliani to

push Ukraine to investigate

Democratic presidential candi-

date Joe Biden and his son,

Hunter, as well as unfounded

allegations that Ukraine inter-

fered in the 2016 U.S. presi-

dential election. Democrats

say such actions amount to an

abuse of presidential power

designed to boost Mr. Trump’s

re-election prospects.

President Trump has denied

wrongdoing and called the im-

peachment inquiry a hoax.

The transcript also shows

Mr. Kent strongly objected to

Trump administration officials

urging Ukraine to pursue po-

litical investigations on Mr.

Trump’s behalf.

“I do not believe the U.S.

should ask other countries to

engage in politically associ-

ated investigations and prose-

cutions,” Mr. Kent said, adding

that such behavior “goes

against everything that we are

trying to promote in post-So-

viet states for the last 28

years, which is the promotion

of the rule of law.”

In his testimony, Mr. Kent

also shed light on an episode re-

ported by The Wall Street Jour-

nal last month. Mr. Kent said he

was told by Kurt Volker, the

special envoy for Ukraine nego-

tiations, that Mr. Volker ap-

proached Ukrainian President

Volodymr Zelensky in early July

at a conference in Toronto in or-

der to privately underscore the

“importance of the messaging

that Zelensky needed to pro-

vide” to Mr. Trump about coop-

erating with the investigations.

WASHINGTON—A State De-
partment official told the House
impeachment inquiry last
month that Rudy Giuliani en-
gaged in a campaign “full of lies
and incorrect information” to
undercut the then-ambassador
to Ukraine, according to a tran-
script released Thursday, cul-
minating in her removal from
the post by President Trump.
The major themes of George
Kent’s Oct. 15 testimony have
been previously reported, but
the transcript released by
House committees provided
more details. As reported at
the time, Mr. Kent testified
that he grew alarmed at efforts
by Mr. Giuliani, Mr. Trump’s
personal lawyer, to set up a

BYDUSTINVOLZ

Diplomat Testifies Giuliani Spread ‘Lies’

day issued a subpoena for Mr.

Trump’s acting chief of staff

Mick Mulvaney to testify Fri-

day morning, after the White

House said this week Mr. Mul-

vaney wouldn’t appear. The

White House didn’t respond to

a request for comment.

In comments to reporters

last month, Mr. Mulvaney

linked President Trump’s deci-

sion to hold up aid to Ukraine

to his desire for Kyiv to launch

a probe related to the 2016

election, then hours later is-

sued a statement contradicting

his own remarks.

Ms. Williams didn’t com-

ment as she entered the secure

room where she gave her depo-

sition, nor as she left in the

early afternoon.

Before her testimony, Ms.

Williams’s lawyer, Justin Shur,

said that she would answer

questions if “required to ap-

pear” and that her testimony

“will largely reflect what is al-

ready in the public record.”

The Intelligence Committee

issued a subpoena on Thursday

morning for Ms. Williams’s tes-

timony, an official working on

the inquiry said.

Ms. Williams and Mr.

Pence’s national security ad-

viser, Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg,

listened to the July 25 call with

several Trump aides and other

White House staffers, accord-

ing to people familiar with the

matter. In the call, Mr. Trump

asked Mr. Zelensky to look into

Democratic presidential candi-

date Joe Biden and his son,

Hunter, according to a rough

transcript released by the

White House.

Mr. Trump has denied any

quid pro quo regarding secu-

rity aid to Ukraine that he had

ordered frozen before the

phone call, and has termed the

impeachment investigation

that was sparked by the call a

witch hunt.

Several of Ms. Williams’s

White House colleagues have

expressed concern over the na-

ture of the president’s discus-

sion with Mr. Zelensky as well

as the actions of the U.S. am-

bassador to the European

Union, Gordon Sondland.

Mr. Pence has in recent

weeks given a series of televi-

sion interviews, during which

he has denied ever discussing

“the issue of the Bidens with

President Zelensky.”

Mr. Pence hasn’t addressed

whether he had knowledge that

individuals—including Mr.

Sondland and the president’s

personal attorney, Rudy Giu-

liani—allegedly said aid or a

personal meeting with Mr.

Trump was contingent on a

Ukrainian investigation into

the Bidens.

WASHINGTON—A State De-
partment official now working
for Vice President Mike Pence
told impeachment investiga-
tors she was surprised by the
political nature of President
Trump’s July 25 phone call
with his Ukrainian counterpart,
according to a person familiar
with the matter.
Jennifer Williams, Mr.
Pence’s special adviser for Eu-
rope and Russia, arrived at the
Capitol on Thursday morning
and was the first person from
the vice president’s staff to tes-
tify. She, along with other offi-
cials, listened to Mr. Trump’s
phone call with Ukrainian Pres-
ident Volodymyr Zelensky, a
conversation that sparked the
House impeachment probe.
In her closed-door testi-
mony before impeachment in-
vestigators, Ms. Williams said
that the vice president wasn’t
involved in any discussions
about political inquiries and
never brought up investiga-
tions with Mr. Zelensky, ac-
cording to the person familiar
with the matter.
Ms. Williams, a career for-
eign-service officer who has
served both Republican and
Democratic administrations,
was the first White House offi-
cial to appear voluntarily be-
fore House panels this week af-
ter several colleagues declined
at the White House’s direction.
House Democrats didn’t try
to compel former national se-
curity adviser John Bolton to
testify Thursday, holding their
fire as a federal court plans to
rule soon on whether another
former White House official
can avoid cooperating with
lawmakers.
Separately, the House Intel-
ligence Committee late Thurs-

BYVIVIANSALAMA
ANDREBECCABALLHAUS

Pence Aide Surprised by Call’s Political Tone

Jennifer Williams told House investigators that Vice President Mike Pence wasn’t involved in any discussions about political inquiries.

TOM BRENNER/REUTERS

WASHINGTON—The Gov-

ernment Accountability Office

is reviewing the Trump admin-

istration’s hold on nearly $

million in security assistance

to Ukraine after a Democratic

senator asked if the freeze vio-

lated appropriations law.

The pause on the aid this

summer is at the center of the

impeachment probe Demo-

crats are conducting in the

House. The review by Con-

gress’s nonpartisan investiga-

tive arm, confirmed by a GAO

spokesman, adds another layer

of scrutiny to the freeze.

At the State Department,

Pentagon, and on Capitol Hill,

officials tried to understand

why the aid had been frozen

and called for it to be released,

according to testimony from

current and former adminis-

tration officials before im-

peachment investigators and

people familiar with the mat-

ter. Lawmakers didn’t receive

clear answers about the reason

for the hold, and Congress re-

ceived no formal notification

about it, according to the peo-

ple. The money was released in

mid-September after biparti-

san pressure on Capitol Hill.

Mr. Trump has denied the

hold was related to his request

to Ukrainian President Volod-

ymyr Zelensky to investigate

presidential hopeful Joe Biden.

He and members of his admin-

istration have said they

paused the money to resolve

concerns about corruption in

the country.

BYANDREWDUEHREN

Watchdog

Reviewing

Hold on

Kyiv Aid