America Demands Justice NOW

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Senate Judiciary Letter To DOJ: Ukraine Helped Clinton Campaign, DNC

On Thursday, the Trump administration released the whistleblower complaint at the center of the Ukraine controversy that prompted the House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry into President Trump.

The complaint accuses Trump of “using the power of his office to solicit interference from a foreign country in the 2020 U.S. election” by asking Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to “look into” former Vice President Joe Biden pressuring Ukraine to remove its top prosecutor, who had investigated Biden’s son’s company for corruption.

The complaint also alleges that the White House attempted to “’lock down’ all records of the phone call, especially the word-for-word transcript of the call that was produced,” though the administration released the transcript Wednesday.

While Trump’s critics are pointing to the transcript and complaint as evidence that Trump sought the help of a foreign country to “interfere” in a U.S. election, reports of Democrats doing something similar have begun to emerge.

On Tuesday, The Washington Post called out the apparent “double standard” of Democrats, noting that “Sens. Robert Menendez, Richard J. Durbin and Patrick J. Leahy wrote a letter to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, Yuriy Lutsenko, expressing concern at the closing of four investigations they said were critical to the Mueller probe.”

Additionally, a July 2017 letter from the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein raised concerns over reports that Ukraine’s political leadership “opposed the candidacy of Donald Trump for president of the United States and worked with a Democratic National Committee consultant to undermine his campaign.”

“This consultant allegedly had various meetings with Ukrainian government officials, including embassy staff, to coordinate the dissemination of incriminating information about Trump campaign officials,” wrote Chairman Chuck Grassley in a press release announcing the letter.

“It appears that this consultant was operating to advance the interests of both the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign, and a foreign government, which would have required registration under FARA.”

Citing several reports from mainstream news outlets, the letter reads in part:

According to news reports, during the 2016 presidential election, “Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump” and did so by “disseminating documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter…”

Ukrainian officials also reportedly “helped Clinton’s allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers.”

At the center of this plan was Alexandra Chalupa, described by reports as a Ukrainian-American operative “who was consulting for the Democratic National Committee” and reportedly met with Ukrainian officials during the presidential election for the express purpose of exposing alleged ties between then-candidate Donald Trump, Paul Manafort, and Russia.

Politico also reported on a Financial Times story that quoted a Ukrainian legislator, Serhiy Leschenko, saying that Trump’s candidacy caused “Kiev’s wider political leadership to do something they would never have attempted before: intervene, however indirectly, in a U.S. election.”

Reporting indicates that the Democratic National Committee encouraged Chalupa to interface with Ukrainian embassy staff to “arrange an interview in which Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine, might discuss Manafort’s ties to Yanukovych.”

Chalupa also met with Valeriy Chaly, Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., and Oksana Shulyar, a top aid to the Ukrainian ambassador in March 2016 and shared her alleged concerns about Manafort.

Reports state that the purpose of their initial meeting was to “organize a June reception at the embassy to promote Ukraine.” However, another Ukrainian embassy official, Andrii Telizhenko, told Politico that Shulyar instructed him to assist Chalupa with research to connect Trump, Manafort, and the Russians.

He reportedly said, they were coordinating an investigation with the Hillary team on Paul Manafort with Alexandra Chalupa” and that “Oksana Shulyar was keeping it all quiet…the embassy worked very closely with” Chalupa.

Chalupa’s actions appear to show that she was simultaneously working on behalf of a foreign government, Ukraine, and on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign, in an effort to influence not only the U.S voting population but U.S. government officials.

Indeed, Telizhenko recalled that Chalupa told him and Shulyar, “if we can get enough information on Paul Manafort or Trump’s involvement with Russia, she can get a hearing in Congress by September.”

Later, Chalupa did reportedly meet with staff in the office of Democratic representative Marcy Kaptur to discuss a congressional investigation.

Such a public investigation would not only benefit the Hillary Clinton campaign, but it would benefit the Ukrainian government, which, at the time, was working against the Trump campaign.

When Politico attempted to ask Rep. Kaptur’s office about the meeting, the office called it a “touchy subject.”

Below is the complete press release and letter to the deputy attorney general published by Grassley’s office on July 24, 2017 (formatting adjusted, h/t Nick Short):

Jul 24, 2017

Report Alleges DNC Consultant Involved in Presidential Election Worked with Ukraine

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley wrote to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein raising concerns over yet another instance of deficient enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) as it relates to the 2016 presidential election.

Media reports suggest that Ukrainian “political leadership” opposed the candidacy of Donald Trump for president and worked with a Democratic National Committee consultant to undermine his campaign.

This consultant allegedly had various meetings with Ukrainian government officials, including embassy staff, to coordinate the dissemination of incriminating information about Trump campaign officials.

It appears that this consultant was operating to advance the interests of both the Democratic National Committee, the Clinton campaign, and a foreign government, which would have required registration under FARA.

In his letter, Grassley requests information on any actions taken by the Justice Department pursuant to FARA in this case, the differences between this case and similar cases in which the Justice Department required registration and whether the Department is investigating links and coordination between the Ukrainian government and individuals associated with the campaign of Clinton or the Democratic National Committee.

On July 26, the Judiciary Committee will convene a hearing to examine enforcement of the Foreign Agents Registration Act and attempts to influence U.S. elections.

Full text of the letter at the link:

https://www.dailywire.com/news/senate-judiciary-letter-to-doj-ukraine-helped-clinton-campaign-dnc