How the Obama White House engaged Ukraine to give Russia collusion narrative an early boost:
U.S. officials “kept talking about how important it was that all of
our anti-corruption efforts be united,” said Andrii Telizhenko, then a
political officer in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington tasked with
organizing the meeting.
Telizhenko, who no longer works for the Ukrainian Embassy, said U.S.
officials volunteered during the meetings — one of which was held in the
White House’s Old Executive Office Building — that they had an interest
in reviving a closed investigation into payments to U.S. figures from
Ukraine’s Russia-backed Party of Regions. ...
Kostiantyn Kulyk, deputy head of the Ukraine prosecutor general’s
international affairs office, said that, shortly after Ukrainian
authorities returned from the Washington meeting, there was a clear
message about helping the Americans with the Party of the Regions case.
“Yes, there was a lot of talking about needing help and then the [Manafort] ledger just appeared in public,” he recalled.
Kulyk said Ukrainian authorities had evidence that other Western figures,
such as former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig, also received
money from Yanukovych’s party. But the Americans weren’t interested:
“They just discussed Manafort. This was all and only what they wanted.
Nobody else.”
