U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan denied six motions on Tuesday in the federal election case against former President Donald Trump, which included bizarre filings from “Victor Shorkin” and the “Galaxy Bar Association.”
The six motions Chutkan denied came one day after she set Trump’s trial date in the alleged election subversion case to March 4. At least one filing was described as a brief “in support of Donald Trump.”
The “Shorkin” affidavit appeared to be a reference to the former Ukrainian prosecutor Viktor Shokin, who was fired from his post for allegedly investigating a natural gas company when President Joe Biden’s son served on the board.
Chutkan denied the filing against “Shorkin,” citing federal rules that disallow amicus briefs in criminal cases and court guidelines for federal courts in the District of Columbia.
“At this time, the court does not find it necessary to depart from the ordinary procedures course by permitting this filing,” Chutkan said in her Tuesday order.
Biden, who may likely face off against Trump again in the 2024 election, has been captured on video boasting about pushing then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko in late 2015 to fire Shokin in exchange for the release of $1 billion U.S. loan guarantees.
At that time, Shokin was investigating the owner of Burisma Holdings, Mykola Zlochevsky. Hunter Biden, who was at that time the second son, had been on Burisma’s board since 2014, making around $1 million per year.
In July, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) released an FBI FD-1023 form from an informant who alleged Zlochevsky paid Joe and Hunter Biden each $5 million in exchange for then-Vice President Joe Biden to use his authority to fire Shokin for probing Burisma for corruption.
“I looked at them and said, ‘I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,’” Biden said during a Council on Foreign Relations panel in 2018, recounting his visit. “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”
Fox News presented a rare interview with Shokin this week, where the former prosecutor was translated asking: “The fact that Joe Biden gave away $1 billion in U.S. money in exchange for my dismissal, my firing, isn’t that alone a case of corruption?”
Among the denied filings was another name filed under “D.A. Feliciano.” It’s not immediately clear which sides were supported by Shorkin, the Galaxy Bar Association, and D.A. Feliciano. Another petition for a Writ of Habeas Corpus was also denied.
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Trump’s ongoing legal dockets have seen their fair share of odd filings. Last September, a document purported to be from the U.S. Treasury Department claimed the agency seized sensitive records related to the FBI’s raid on Trump’s Florida home, Mar-a-Lago, and that it included a warrant ordering CNN to preserve “leaked tax records.” In actuality, the document originated from a serial forger in a federal prison complex in North Carolina.
The former president pleaded not guilty to four criminal charges on Aug. 3, which allege he engaged in a “conspiracy to impair, obstruct, and defeat the federal government function through dishonesty, fraud and deceit.”
