During Donald Trump's first impeachment in 2019, State Department officials insisted they considered the Burisma Holdings energy firm in Ukraine that employed Hunter Biden to be corrupt and wanted nothing to do with it.
Despite the concerns about Burisma within the embassy, the Ambassador and other State Department officials continued to interact with the company's representatives.
"Blue Star informed me that-or I should say Sally and her team informed me that they were looking into-that they'd been hired by Burisma or by the Burisma board-I don't remember which one; it may have been the board-to look into the accusations against Mr. Zlochevsky and Burisma and to give an assessment of the veracity of the charges against Burisma-or, sorry, against Zlochevsky," Hochstein testified.
Summer 2016: Kent intervenes to stop Burisma partnering with USAID. In the summer of 2016, George Kent intervened with USAID when he discovered that the foreign aid agency was planning to partner with Burisma on an award program for journalists covering the energy sector in Ukraine, according to an email briefing Kent sent to Ambassador Yovanovitch after the fact, obtained by Just the News.
Kent told Yovanovitch about Blue Star's representation of Burisma and Zlochevsky, to which the Ambassador Yovanovitch followed-up in an email: "Thanks George. At some point appreciate discussing in more detail some of the folks referenced." Kent would later brief the ambassador on the allegations against Burisma and Zlochevsky.
The attendance list, published in the State Department's online reading room, includes Joseph Cofer Black, a board member of Burisma and ex-CIA and State Department official.
In April 2017, Ambassador Yovanovitch attended another meeting hosted by the U.S.-Ukraine Business Council with Burisma representative Vadim Pozharskyi, according to photos obtained by Just the News and a post on Burisma Holdings archived website.
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