October 7, 2019

President Donald Trump (White House photo)

The former director of a Ukrainian anti-corruption agency with an evidence-sharing agreement with the FBI admitted he tried to undermine Donald Trump's campaign in favor of Hillary Clinton in 2016, according to The Blaze.

Host Glenn Beck played an audio recording on his television show Friday that he described as a conversation between Artem Sytnyk, director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine, and two friends, identified as "Kolya" and "Ivan."

The Blaze noted Sytnyk later was convicted in Ukraine for interfering in the U.S. presidential election in 2016 by releasing a "black ledger" on Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

The recording is significant in light of a Politico report in May 2017 that a Ukrainian-American Democratic Party operative, Alexandra Chalupa, worked closely with the Ukrainian embassy in Washington to collect dirt on Trump and spread reports in media that Trump and Manafort were "Russian assets."

Kolya asks, according to a translation of the recording: "Did they, those Russians, help Trump? Your people?"

Sytnyk replies: "I think they did. Yeah. I helped him, too. Not him, but Hillary. I helped her."

The Ukrainian official later explains that Clinton, in contrast to Trump, is part of the American and international establishment, meaning she would be "better for us" while Trump is better for Americans.

"I was in charge of the investigation of their 'black accounting' records," Sytnyk says. "We made the Manafort data available to the general public."

The report comes amid what House Democrats describe as an "impeachment inquiry" into allegations President Trump engaged in a quid pro quo with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a July 25 phone call. The charge is that Trump threatened to withhold military aid to Ukraine unless Zelensky investigated Hunter Biden's lucrative deal with a Ukrainian natural gas company while his father Joe Biden was the Obama administration's point man for the country.

However, a transcript of the phone call shows Trump's primary interest was Ukraine's assistance in the U.S. Justice Department's ongoing probe of the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion claims that led to a politically costly special counsel investigation.

The audio recording, if verified, adds to growing evidence that the Democrats' attempt to undermine Trump with collusion charges originated with Ukraine.

'Something I'm working on'

The Democratic operative Chalupa worked in the White House Office of Public Liaison during the Clinton administration and later was a consultant for the Democratic National Committee.

The Blaze spotlighted an email distributed by WikiLeaks from Chalupa to the DNC's Louise Miranda regarding her contact with media.

Hey, a lot coming down the pipe. I spoke to a delegation of 68 investigative journalists from Ukraine last night at the Library of Congress, the Open World Society forum. They put me on the program to speak specifically about Paul Manafort. I invited Michael Isikoff, who I’ve been working with for the past few weeks, and connected him to the Ukrainians. More offline tomorrow, since there was a big Trump component you and Lauren need to be aware of that will hit in the next few weeks. Something I’m working on that you should be aware of.

Beck pointed out that Isikoff later wrote an article based on the dubious, anti-Trump "dossier" of claims by unnamed Russian sources that was financed by the Clinton campaign and the DNC. The document was used by the Obama Justice Department and FBI to obtain warrants to spy on the Trump campaign, House Intelligence Committee Republicans found in their investigation.

Isikoff's article was submitted to a FISA court to obtain the warrants as confirmation of the claims in the dossier. But the article was based on the dossier itself.

Mueller's special counsel team could not verify any of the claims in the dossier and debunked its major allegations.

The full transcript of the audio recording, translated from Ukrainian:

Kolya: Did they, those Russians, help Trump? Your people?

Sytnyk: I think they did. Yeah. I helped him, too. Not him, but Hillary. I helped her.

Kolya: Yeah. Right. Then her position tottered, right?

Sytnyk: Well, this is how they write about it, right.

Ivan: Hillary’s humanitarian aid … [indiscernible.]

Kolya: Well, I’m about … the commentaries. At the time, we were not [indiscernible.]

Sytnyk: Trump … his purely inner problem … issue … they dominate over the external matters. While Hillary, she is – how shall I put it? She belongs to the cohort of politicians who comprise the hegemony in the U.S. Both in the U.S. and the entire world, right? For us, it’s … sort of … better. For Americans … what Trump is doing is better for them.

Kolya: Well, we have lots of those American experts here now … [indiscernible.]

Sytnyk: Well, there, you see why Hillary lost the elections? I was in charge of the investigation of their “black accounting” records. We made the Manafort data available to the general public.

Kolya: So what?

Sytnyk: He was imprisoned. Manafort then was the head of the Supreme Headquarter of Trump, right? Then he was dismissed, too, including due to the “black accounting.” After that, he was sentenced to 80 years of imprisonment term. How about Trump? Did he not give a s***. They have their system working there and it works smoothly.

Kolya: Everybody worked smoothly there.

Sytnyk: And when they carried out the elections, a week before the elections, the FBI reopened the investigation in respect of Hillary. So her rating dropped for 7 percent and that’s why Trump managed to win the elections at a pinch. I’m still unable to understand why he’s fighting with the FBI. They try to catch him on the hand. If it were not the FBI, he would not have won the elections. They torpedoed Hillary’s ratings for 7 percent.

https://www.wnd.com/2019/10/audio-email-dnc-colluded-ukraine/