A GOP lawmaker on the House Judiciary Committee said the panel wants to speak to the former Ukrainian prosecutor who was fired at the behest of then-Vice President Joseph R. Biden.

Viktor Shokin, former Ukrainian prosecutor general, said in an interview with Fox News’ “One Nation With Brian Kilmeade” that he’s ready to talk to Congress about what he learned during his investigation of Burisma, the Ukrainian natural gas company where Hunter Biden served on its board.

Rep. Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, told the news outlet Monday the committee wants to hear from Mr. Shokin.

“I think he could be a key witness in this, of course,” Mr. Johnson said. “And you see the White House pushing back … and suggesting that he’s not a trustworthy witness. They say that about everyone involved in this — the idea that the president would be engaged in a pay-to-play scheme like this.

“And then [Mr. Biden] bragged about it on video. … Throughout this process, Mr. Shokin, of course, is an important voice in this because he was directly involved.”

He added, “He was the target of the president. And the idea that he believes there was bribery confirms what many of us are already thinking.”

Mr. Shokin, who was ousted from his position in 2016, described how President Biden, as vice president at the time, involved himself to get the former prosecutor fired.

“I have said repeatedly in my previous interviews that [President Petro] Poroshenko fired me at the insistence of the then Vice President Biden because I was investigating Burisma,” Mr. Shokin told the news outlet.

“[Mr. Poroshenko] understood, and so did Vice President Biden, that had I continued to oversee the Burisma investigation, we would have found the facts about the corrupt activities that they were engaging in. That included both Hunter Biden and Devon Archer and others.”

Mr. Shokin also alleged that he learned that the elder Biden and Hunter Biden accepted bribes and set up the foundation for Russia to invade Ukraine.

He said, “They were being bribed. And 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?”

Less than eight months after Vadym Pozharskyi, an adviser to the board of Burisma, thanked Hunter Biden for introducing him to his dad, the then-vice president admittedly pressured Mr. Poroshenko and Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk into firing Mr. Shokin by threatening to withhold a $1 billion U.S. loan guarantee.

“I looked at them and said: I’m leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you’re not getting the money,” Mr. Biden boasted to the Council on Foreign Relations in 2018. “Well, son of a bitch. He got fired.”

Mr. Shokin has said that at the time of his firing, in March 2016, he’d made “specific plans” to investigate Burisma that “included interrogations and other crime-investigation procedures into all members of the executive board, including Hunter Biden.”

President Biden and his Democratic allies have routinely maintained that the U.S. wanted Mr. Shokin removed over corruption concerns, which were shared by the European Union.

However, an email dated May 12, 2014 — not long after Hunter Biden joined the Burisma board — shows Mr. Pozharskyi trying to get him to use his political leverage to protect the company.

House Republicans’ interest in Mr. Shokin’s story shows that the GOP is moving closer toward an impeachment of Mr. Biden.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, California Republican, signaled Sunday that it’s almost certain the chamber will open an impeachment inquiry into the president once Congress returns from its August recess next month.

“If you look at all the information we’ve been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry,” the California Republican said on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures With Maria Bartiromo.” “That provides Congress the apex of legal power.”

Mr. Johnson noted that bribery is something that’s simply defined.

“What everybody needs to remember here is that it is specifically listed, of course, as one of the three causes for impeachment in our Constitution. Article 2, Section 4 [lists] treason, bribery, high crimes and misdemeanors, and on Capitol Hill a lot of people debate and quibble about what high crimes and misdemeanors are,” he said. “But we know what bribery is. When someone paid you to do their bidding. And that’s what happened here, apparently.”

• Kerry Picket can be reached at kpicket@washingtontimes.com.