Thread by @themarketswork

1) My latest @EpochTimes Ties to Ukrainian National a Unifying Theme in Early Attacks on Trump
theepochtimes.com/ties-to-ukrain…

2) Serhiy Leshchenko, a Ukrainian member of parliament, was a common thread involved in Democratic opposition research efforts into former Trump campaign Chairman Paul Manafort.

3) Leshchenko, along with Artem Sytnyk, the director of Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau, was responsible for publicly disclosing the contents of the Ukrainian “black ledger,” which implicated Manafort, to the media.

4) Leshchenko also served as a source for various individuals, including journalist Michael Isikoff and DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa.

In addition, Leshchenko served as a direct source of information for Fusion GPS—and former CIA contractor Nellie Ohr.

5) On May 30, 2016, Nellie Ohr sent an email to Bruce Ohr, Holtyn, Ivana Nizich, and Joe Wheatley.

Nizich & Holtyn had previously worked for Bruce Ohr.

The email held a subject line that read “Reported Trove of Documents on Ukrainian Party of Regions’ ‘Black Cashbox.’”

6) Within the email was the text from an article penned the day before by Nikolai Holmov, a blogger at Odessatalk, with the title bolded and enlarged.

It also contained a link to the underlying article.

7) Questions raised in Holmov’s article would prove prescient.

“Have copies of these documents made their way to other, perhaps foreign security services?”

“If there are foreign personalities involved, are those relevant documents to be shared with those nations—and when?”

8) Manafort would be famously implicated in the Black Box ledger scandal two months later and it would lead to his resignation from the Trump campaign.

9) On March 20, 2017, Leshchenko released another set of documents, this time alleging to show that Manafort took steps to hide payments related to his work for former Ukrainian President Viktor F. Yanukovych.

10) Leshchenko became the subject of an investigation in Ukraine and in December 2018, a Kyiv court ruled that Leshchenko, along with NABU Director Artem Sytnyk “acted illegally when they revealed that Manafort’s surname and signature were found in the so-called “black ledger”

11) According to a Jan. 11, 2017, investigative article by Politico Democratic operative Alexandra Chalupa had been investigating Manafort and his work in Ukraine since 2014.
politico.com/story/2017/01/…

12) In January 2016, Chalupa informed an unknown senior DNC official that she believed there was a Russian connection with the Trump campaign.

Notably, this theme would be picked up by the Clinton campaign in the summer of 2016.

13) Chalupa also told the official to expect Manafort’s involvement in the Trump campaign.

Chalupa’s forecast proved prescient, as Manafort reached out to the Trump campaign shortly after, on Feb. 29, 2016, through a mutual acquaintance, Thomas J. Barrack Jr.

14) Just days prior to Manafort’s hiring, on March 24, 2016, Chalupa spoke with the Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, Valeriy Chaly, and told him of concerns she had regarding Manafort.

15) @AndriyUkraineTe , who worked in the Ukrainian Embassy under one of Chaly’s top aides, Oksana Shulyar, has repeatedly stated that Chalupa was working closely with the Ukrainian embassy to obtain information on Trump.

16) On April 26, 2016, Yahoo News investigative reporter Michael Isikoff published a story about Paul Manafort’s business dealings with Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.

The Isikoff article referenced an investment fund, Pericles Emerging Markets.

17) This same transaction would later be referenced in the Aug. 14, 2016, New York Times article that reported the alleged payments to Manafort from the Party of Regents’ black box.

18) On April 28, 2016, Chalupa appeared on a panel to discuss her research on Manafort with a group of 68 Ukrainian investigative journalists.

Appearing with her was Isikoff, with whom she was apparently working, according to a May 3, 2016, email sent to the DNC.

19) Chalupa’s email closed w/a reference to something larger to be made public in the coming weeks:

More offline tomorrow since there is a big Trump component you and Lauren need to be aware of that will hit in next few weeks and something I’m working on you should be aware of.

20) On Aug. 14, 2016, The New York Times broke their blockbuster story alleging that payments to Manafort had been uncovered from the Party of Regents’ “black box”—the 400-page handwritten ledger released by Leshchenko.

The article proved to be a fatal blow for Manafort.

21) On Aug. 19, 2016, Isikoff wrote a follow-up article, claiming that Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators were seeking to question Manafort, who had resigned from the Trump campaign that same day.

The source for Isikoff was Leshchenko.

22) Leshchenko held a press conference in Kyiv that same day, where he provided further details from the Party of Regions’ ledger.

Leshchenko also provided details directly to Isikoff, telling Yahoo News “that ledgers in the book include 22 separate entries for Manafort"

23) Mentioned in the same article was Chalupa, with whom Isikoff had been working:

“I’m ecstatic that Paul Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign. Mr. Manafort is someone who spent the last decades working against our nation’s foreign policy interests overseas."

24) Besides Isikoff, it appears Leshchenko had also been in contact with Chalupa.

According to a March 20, 2017, report from Fox News, Leshchenko had spoken with Chalupa sometime in 2016...
/End