According to Vogel's reporting, the Ukrainian government worked with a Democrat operative and the media in 2016 to boost Secretary Clinton's candidacy and hurt President Trump's. Vogel wrote:
Ukrainian government officials tried to help Hillary Clinton and undermine Trump by publicly questioning his fitness for office. They also disseminated documents implicating a top Trump aide in corruption and suggested they were investigating the matter, only to back away after the election. And they helped Clinton's allies research damaging information on Trump and his advisers, a Politico investigation found.[1]
Vogel reported how Alexandra Chalupa, a Ukrainian-American contractor paid by the DNC and working with the DNC and the Clinton campaign, "traded information and leads" about Paul Manafort, Trump's campaign manager, with staff at the Ukrainian embassy.[2] Chalupa also told Vogel that the Ukrainian embassy "worked directly with reporters researching Trump, Manafort, and Russia to point them in the right directions."[3] With the DNC's encouragement, Chalupa asked Ukrainian embassy staff "to try to arrange an interview in which [Ukrainian President] Poroshenko might discuss Manafort's ties to [Russia-aligned former Ukrainian President Viktor] Yanukovych."[4]
Vogel also spoke on the record to Andrii Telizhenko, a political officer in the Ukrainian Embassy under Ambassador Chaly, who corroborated Chalupa's account.[5] Telizhenko said that he was instructed by Ambassador Chaly's top aide, Oksana Shulyar, to "help Chalupa research connections between Trump, Manafort, and Russia" with the goal of generating a hearing in Congress.[6] Telizhenko also told Vogel that he was instructed not to speak to the Trump campaign:
We had an order not to talk to the Trump team, because he was critical of Ukraine and the government and his critical position on Crimea and the conflict. I was yelled at when I proposed to talk to Trump. The ambassador said not to get involved—Hillary is going to win.[7]
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Id. In April 2019, then-Ambassador Chaly issued a statement to The Hill denying that the Ukrainian embassy sought to influence the election. See Official April 25, 2019 statement of the Ukrainian embassy in Washington to The Hill concerning the activities of Democratic National Committee Alexandra Chalupa during the 2016 U.S. election, https://www.scribd.com/document/432699412/Ukraine-Chaly-Statement-on-Chalupa-042519.
- ↑ Vogel & Stern, supra note 127.
- ↑ Id. Interestingly, in August 2019, when Chairman Schiff tweeted an allegation that U.S. security assistance to Ukraine was tied up with Ukrainian investigations, Alexandra Chalupa replied that she had "a lot of information on this topic." See Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff), Twitter (Aug. 28, 2019, 5:17 p.m.), https://twitter.com/RepAdamSchiff/status/1166867471862829056. It is unknown whether Chalupa ever provided information to Chairman Schiff or his staff.
- ↑ Vogel & Stern, supra note 127.
- ↑ Id.
- ↑ Id.
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