House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) blasted a “damning” photo of then-Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two with a Hunter-linked aide as they headed to Ukraine.

That trip was the one where Biden threatened to withhold $1 billion in US aid if Ukrainian top prosecutor, Viktor Shokin, was not fired. He was fired three months after that trip.

Shokin was investigating Mykola Zlochevsky, who was the founder and then-president of Burisma Holdings, where Hunter served as a board member from April 2014 to April 2019. Biden’s defenders claim that Shokin was fired not because he was pursuing corruption too aggressively, but because he wasn’t aggressive enough.

A photo taken by White House photographer David Lienemann shows Biden with Amos Hochstein, Biden’s current special presidential coordinator. It was taken on December 6, 2015, and Stefanik is claiming it links the president to the Hunter Biden scandal involving influence peddling.

Current White House staffer Amos Hochstein was in communication with Hunter and Burisma while working for then-VP Joe Biden.

Below is a picture of then-VP Joe Biden being briefed by Amos Hochstein, then-Special Envoy aboard Air Force 2 on the way the way to Ukraine. This… https://t.co/978d0eZe01

— Oversight Committee (@GOPoversight) August 10, 2023

“Well, son of a bitch” ~ VP Joe Biden
How could we forget this classic video clip, of ‘cocky’, Joe Biden BRAGGING about using $1B of aid to Ukraine, as leverage to get the Ukrainian Prosecutor, Shokin, FIRED?pic.twitter.com/hVaU7paLEy

— Marla Hohner (@marlahohner) August 4, 2023

Hochstein was reportedly communicating with Hunter Biden’s business associates at Burisma Holdings while he was serving on the company’s board of directors. He is seen briefing Biden in the photo.

Stefanik charged that the picture is further proof that Biden knew of and was engaged in Hunter Biden’s foreign business deals.

“This damning picture of then Vice President Joe Biden on Air Force Two en route to Ukraine talking with Amos Hochstein is just further evidence that Biden and senior officials in the Biden Administration not only knew of Hunter Biden’s corrupt foreign business dealings but also that Joe Biden was intimately involved while Vice President,” Stefanik told Fox News Digital in a statement.

“At the time of this photo, Hochstein was in communication with Hunter Biden and Burisma where Hunter served on the board. We also know that this photo was taken on Air Force Two ahead of Joe Biden’s now infamous meeting with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, where Biden threatened to have aid withheld if a Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma was not fired,” she continued.

“All evidence points directly to Joe Biden being deeply compromised. House Republicans will leave no stone unturned in our investigations into Biden’s involvement in his family’s influence-peddling scheme,” Stefanik vowed.

It’s clear Joe Biden knew about his son’s business dealings.

Chairman @RepJamesComer and @GOPoversight continue to uncover more and more evidence showing how involved Joe Biden was in the Biden family’s corrupt influence peddling scheme. https://t.co/MMa3nWofM1

— Rep. Elise Stefanik (@RepStefanik) August 9, 2023

Fox News reported in June that it had obtained emails that showed Hunter Biden and his associates contacting Hochstein for guidance in 2014 concerning a new tax on energy companies in Ukraine.

A 2020 Senate Republican report purportedly shows that Hochstein in October 2015 warned the president and the first son that Hunter Biden’s seat on Burisma’s board enabled Russian disinformation efforts. He went further to note that Biden’s involvement could possibly undermine US policy in Ukraine.

Victoria Nuland, who was serving as assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs in 2015, also alluded to the fact that Hochstein warned about the situation on the pictured flight to Ukraine.

“We were starting to think about a trip to Ukraine, and I wanted to make sure that he was aware that there was an increase in chatter on media outlets close to Russians and corrupt oligarchs-owned media outlets about undermining his message — to try to undermine his [Vice President Biden’s] message and including Hunter Biden being part of the board of Burisma,” Hochstein told Congress.

Grassley/Johnson Interview: Amos Hochstein
Hunter
Burisma
Joe Biden
Blue Star Strategy
Zlochevsky

Transcripts of all interviews conducted during this investigation are available HERE.https://t.co/hj5kF7KZ3g
You need to download it and save or you can’t read it pic.twitter.com/sOJ71G5itC

— Joni Job (@jj_talking) August 10, 2023

The report details that when he met Hunter Biden for coffee on November 6, 2015, he “did not go so far as to recommend that Hunter leave the board.”

“Well, he [Hunter] asked me for a meeting,” Hochstein said in his testimony to Congress. “I think he wanted to know my views on Burisma and [Mykola] Zlochevsky. And so I shared with him that the Russians were using his name in order to sow disinformation — attempt to sow disinformation among Ukrainians.”

Hochstein was appointed special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs during the Obama administration. He was later tapped as Biden’s special coordinator for global infrastructure and energy security in August of 2021. Hochstein now serves as the special presidential coordinator.

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