Sweeping changes to Ukraine's top law enforcement agency ordered by Preside...
KIEV - Sweeping changes to Ukraine’s top law enforcement agency ordered by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy are set to derail a series of long-running criminal investigations, including two related to U.S. President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, three current and former Ukrainian prosecutors told Reuters.
The overhaul, which began in October, comes amid widespread scrutiny of the agency following efforts by Trump and his personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to get Ukraine to open an investigation into the Republican president’s political rival - Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden - and his son Hunter, who served on the board of a Ukrainian gas company.
During a press conference in October, Zelenskiy said what he meant in his comments to Trump was that Ryaboshapka would be an honest prosecutor. Ryaboshapka declined to be interviewed by Reuters and has not responded directly to questions sent by Reuters about the criticism of his reforms. But his office defended them and the exam process.
“This entire reform is being done in order to take control of the General Prosecutor’s Office... and have the guarantee that there will be no dissent,” Horbatiuk said in an interview with Reuters conducted in his office on Oct. 22, the day before he was fired. “All of this is easy and happens quickly. With no harm to the investigation,” Smirnov told Reuters. “The problem being described to you does not exist.”
Manafort was Trump’s campaign chairman from May to August of 2016. He stepped down after a Ukrainian lawmaker divulged details contained in a so-called “black ledger” of alleged off-the-books payments made by Yanukovich’s Party of the Regions.
Giuliani did not respond to requests to comment for this story. He told Reuters in a recent interview that “some” Ukrainians say the black ledger is forged. Earlier this year he said that Manafort had communicated to him through an attorney that the ledger’s “entries about me are false.”
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