Ukrainian law enforcement officials believe they have evidence of
wrongdoing by American Democrats and their allies in Kiev, ranging from
2016 election interference to obstructing criminal probes. But, they
say, they’ve been thwarted in trying to get the Trump Justice Department
to act.
Kostiantyn Kulyk, deputy head of the Prosecutor General’s
International Legal Cooperation Department, told me he and other senior
law enforcement officials tried unsuccessfully since last year to get
visas from the U.S. Embassy in Kiev to deliver their evidence to
Washington.
“We
were supposed to share this information during a working trip to the
United States,” Kulyk told me in a wide-ranging interview. “However, the
[U.S.] ambassador blocked us from obtaining a visa. She didn’t
explicitly deny our visa, but also didn’t give it to us.”
One
focus of Ukrainian investigators, Kulyk said, has been money spirited
unlawfully out of Ukraine and moved to the United States by businessmen
friendly to the prior, pro-Russia regime of Viktor Yanukovych.
Ukrainian
businessmen “authorized payments for lobbying efforts directed at the
U.S. government,” he told me. “In addition, these payments were made
from funds that were acquired during the money-laundering operation. We
have information that a U.S. company was involved in these payments.”
That company is tied to one or more prominent Democrats, Ukrainian
officials insist.
In another instance, he said, Ukrainian
authorities gathered evidence that money paid to an American Democrat
allegedly was hidden by Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau
(NABU) during the 2016 election under pressure from U.S. officials. “In
the course of this investigation, we found that there was a situation
during which influence was exerted on the NABU, so that the name of [the
American] would not be mentioned,” he said.
More here.
