Ukraine's top prosecutor REOPENS corruption case targeting energy company Hunter Biden helped run – just hours after Donald Trump says country 'should investigate' his political rivals

Ukraine´s Prosecutor General said on Friday that his office would review the case of an energy company linked to Hunter Biden – just a day after President Donald Trump called for the country to investigate the Bidens.

The prosecutor said he is reviewing all the cases that were closed by his predecessors – including several related to the owner of gas company Burisma Holdings where former Vice President Joe Biden´s son sat on the board of directors and was reportedly compensated $50,000 a month.

President Trump, speaking on the South Lawn of the White House Thursday, said Ukraine should investigate the Bidens, while also saying China should probe Hunter Biden's business dealings there.

The president  suggested on that China showered $1.5 billion on Hunter Biden in order to influence his father and win favorable trade deals with the United States. 

House Democrats are conducting an impeachment inquiry of the president after a whistle-blower complaint detailed the president's July phone call to the president Ukraine where he pushed for a probe of his Democratic rival. 

Trump defended his public call for foreign help investigating his rival a day after his initial comments in response to a question by DailyMail.com. His response fueled the uproar over his earlier Ukraine request, which helped jump-start a Democratic impeachment inquiry. 

President Donald Trump said Thursday that both Ukraine and China should probe possible corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden  

Ukraine's top prosecutor will review case linked to Hunter Biden

'As President I have an obligation to end CORRUPTION, even if that means requesting the help of a foreign country or countries. It is done all the time. This has NOTHING to do with politics or a political campaign against the Bidens. This does have to do with their corruption!' Trump tweeted Friday. 

Trump said Thursday that if Ukraine 'were honest about it,' it 'would start a major investigation against the Bidens. It's a very simple answer.' 

'Likewise, China should start an investigation into the Bidens,' Trump insisted, 'because what happened with the Bidens in China is just about as bad.

'President Zelensky – if it were me I would recommend they start an investigation into the Bidens because nobody has any doubt that they aren't crooked,' he added, speaking of the president of Ukraine.

Ukraine's Prosecutor General Ruslan Ryaboshapka said he would reopen a number of cases, including one dealing with the company where Hunter Biden served on the board

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy speaks to soldiers during his visit to military base outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Sept. 30, 2019. Ukraine's president told media his country won't be pressured into opening an investigation into Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son. A Ukrainian prosecutor announced he was reopening probes into a number of cases, including one involving a company where Biden served on the board

Former Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden speaks during a gun safety forum Wednesday, Oct. 2, 2019, in Las Vegas

Trump recommends Ukraine and China open Biden investigations

Ukrainian prosecutor Ruslan Ryaboshapka told reporters in Kyiv that prosecutors are auditing all the cases that were closed or dismissed by former prosecutors, including several related to Mykola Zlochevsky, owner of the gas company Burisma that hired Hunter Biden in 2014, at the same time his father was leading the Obama administration´s diplomatic dealings with Kyiv.

Though the timing raised concerns among anti-corruption advocates, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing by either the former vice president or his son.

"We are now reviewing all the cases that were closed or split into several parts or were investigated before, in order to be able to rule to reverse those cases where illegal procedural steps were taken," Ryaboshapka said.

Asked by The Associated Press about Trump´s comment Thursday that the U.S. has an "absolute right" to ask foreign leaders to investigate corruption cases, Zelenskiy said that Ukraine is "open" and that all the cases under investigation are "transparent."

The Prosecutor General´s Office later said that among the cases they are reviewing, there are 15 where Zlochevsky is mentioned. None of the Zlochevsky-related cases has been revived yet, they said.

They did not specify how many, if any, were related to Hunter Biden´s work at Burisma.

Ryaboshapka was mentioned in the July 25 call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who assured Trump that Ryaboshapka was "his man" and that he would resume investigations into Burisma.

The prosecutor general insisted on Friday that he did not feel any pressure over the Burisma case.

"Not a single foreign or Ukrainian official or politician has called me or tried to influence my decisions regarding specific criminal cases," he said.

A whistleblower last month revealed that Trump in a phone call asked Zelenskiy to resume the probe into Joe Biden and his son. The July 25 call has since triggered an impeachment inquiry against Trump.

Pelosi says Trump is 'stooping beneath dignity of Constitution'

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

'You've been in politics for quite some time. How does this rank as far as on the outlandish scale for you, the last 48 hours, watching this transpire?' Kimmel asked Biden.  

The former vice president replied: '18 out of 10,' calling the situation 'bizarre'. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that the House was opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump amid a political firestorm sparked by a whistleblower's complaint about a July phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. 

The intelligence community informant alleged that Trump threatened to withhold $400million in military aid to the Ukraine unless Zelensky agreed to investigate Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings in the country.   

Biden remarked: 'The idea that someone would call a head of a foreign state, withhold significant aid when they badly need it to hold the Russian separatists in Ukraine from taking over Ukraine, and then ask, basically, to, can you cooperate with Rudy Giuliani coming over ... I mean, it's such a blatant abuse of power that it's, it just, I don't think it can stand.' 

Scroll down for video 

Joe Biden reacted to the revelation that President Donald Trump allegedly pressured the Ukranian president into investigating the Democratic 2020 frontrunner's family during a Wednesday interview on Jimmy Kimmel Tonight

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced Tuesday that the House was opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump amid a political firestorm sparked by a whistleblower's complaint about a July phone call between the US president and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (above together on Wednesday) 

The whistleblower alleged that Trump threatened to withhold $400million in military aid to the Ukraine unless Zelensky agreed to investigate Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings in the country. Joe and Hunter Biden are pictured above

Asked whether Trump's alleged Ukraine dealings are an impeachable offense, Biden replied: 'Based on the material that they acknowledged today, it seems to me it's awful hard to avoid the conclusion that it is an impeachable offense and a violation of constitutional responsibility.  

'But look, that's, I'm confident in the ability of the house and senate to deal with this. My job is to just go out and beat him. 

'I can't let this distract me in a way that takes me away from the issues that really, the reasons that I'm running.' 

Biden asserted that he became the object of Trump's attention because a number of polls have shown that he could beat the incumbent in 2020.  

'When you step back from it, this is not about me and my family. There's not one single solitary legitimate journalist in the world giving any credibility to this,' Biden said. 'They've debunked all of what he had to say since Giuliani started this a while ago,' he said. 

'I do worry about all the other families that can't take care of themselves and what's happening with this president and his constant diversions.'

Biden said 'there is much more at stake than whether or not he's acting so bizarrely' before listing off the 'monumental damage' Trump's administration has caused to issues like health care, the environment and international relations. 

Trump asked Ukraine president to investigate Biden: call summary

Biden said he won't let the Ukraine ordeal to distract from his 2020 presidential campaign 

Biden said if the allegations about Trump coercing Ukraine are true, they would constitute an impeachable offense. Earlier on Wednesday, the president mocked Democrats calling for impeachment at a news conference (pictured)  

Jumping off that comment, Kimmel asked: 'How much of your desire to run is related to Donald Trump being president? In other words, if someone, if a decent man like Jeb Bush had won the Republican nomination, would, would you feel as motivated to run?' 

'I guess the honest answer is no,' Biden said.

He explained that he hadn't planned on running after his son Beau died of a brain tumor in 2015 because he was proud of the 'progress' made during former President Barack Obama's administration.  

That changed, Biden said, after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville in 2017. 

He described watching 'those folks in Charlottesville, coming out of the fields, carrying torches, contorted faces, their veins bulging, shouting the same anti-Semitic bile that was shouted in the streets of Nuremberg and Berlin in the '30s, accompanied by the Klu Klux Klan'. 

'When a woman was killed and the president was asked to respond, he said there were very fine people in both groups,' Biden recalled.

'No president has ever, ever said anything like that, the possible exception of Andrew Jackson before the Civil War. 

'That's when I decided, how can I remain silent? Because I was raised by a dad who taught me silence is complicit.'

Biden continued: 'This is the way [Trump] has tried to divide this country and pitted people against one another.'

'This division in our country is just so devastating, so devastating for so many people, and it's ruining our standing around the world. 

'Eight years of Donald Trump will fundamentally alter the character of this nation in my view. And I, we, can't let that happen.'  

'Impeachment for THAT?' Trump mocks impeachment inquiry decision