Page:Impeachment of Donald J. Trump, President of the United States — Report of the Committee on the Judiciary, House of Representatives.pdf/117

 indicates that Ukraine interfered with the 2016 presidential election." The Republican-led Senate Select Committee on Intelligence concluded the same. It is therefore entirely not credible to suggest that the President's actions were based on a sincere belief that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 United States election or that the so-called "Crowdstrike theory" had any validity.

Similarly, there is no legitimate basis for President Trump to claim former Vice President Biden behaved improperly in calling for the removal of Ukrainian prosecutor general Viktor Shokin. When he called for Mr. Shokin's removal, then-Vice President Biden acted in accordance with and in furtherance of an official United States policy and the broad consensus of various European countries and the International Monetary Fund. Indeed, in late 2015, the International Monetary Fund threatened Ukraine that it would not receive $40 billion in international assistance unless Mr. Shokin was removed. Vice President Biden was subsequently enlisted by the State Department to call for Mr. Shokin's removal—and in late 2015 and early 2016, he announced that the United States would withhold $1 billion in loan guarantees unless Mr. Shokin was dismissed. Ultimately, in March 2016, Ukraine's parliament voted to dismiss Mr. Shokin. Moreover, multiple witnesses confirmed that the removal of Mr. Shokin would have increased the likelihood that Burisma would be investigated for corruption, not the opposite, given that Mr. Shokin was widely considered to be both ineffective and