US lawyer for Burisma retroactively registers as a foreign agent as impeachment inquiry escalates

In a filing with with the Justice Department on Thursday, the lawyer who represented Burisma Holdings and its founder Mykola Zlochevsky, each at the center of House Republicans' Biden impeachment inquiry, retroactively registered as a foreign agent.

The paperwork, submitted to the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) database, show the scope of work for lawyer John Buretta, of Cravath, Swaine and Moore, for the Ukrainian energy company and its founder at a time when the company and its founder were beset by a corruption investigation from the Ukrainian government.

The filing confirms a key part of previous reporting by Just the News that Zlochevsky, a Ukraine oligarch and his company, were under pressure from a government investigation in Ukraine, led by Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin.

“In January 2016, Mr. Buretta was retained to represent Mykola Zlochevsky in connection with possible investigations by governmental authorities in the United States," the filing Thursday reads. "The representation thereafter broadened to include Burisma Holdings Limited, as well as governmental investigations in Ukraine, and continued until April 2017.”

You can read the filing below:

At this time, first son Hunter Biden served on the Burisma board and worked with American firm Blue Star Strategies to “close down” the investigation into the company. Biden’s involvement in these efforts have raised questions about whether he violated FARA by his actions.

Biden's father, President Joe Biden, as vice president in December 2015 infamously called for the firing of Shokin in exchange for a $1 billion loan guarantee to the Ukrainian government during a trip to Kyiv.

Shokin was ultimately fired by Ukrainian President Poroshenko in March of 2016.

The House of Representatives in December approved an official impeachment inquiry into President Biden over allegations influence peddling that date from his tenure as vice president.