*'''25 April.''' '''How the Obama White House engaged Ukraine to give Russia collusion narrative an early boost,''' by John Solomon<ref>https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/440730-how-the-obama-white-house-engaged-ukraine-to-give-russia-collusion</ref>
:*In January 2016 the Obama White House summoned Ukrainian authorities to Washington. The meeting brought some of Ukraine’s top corruption prosecutors and investigators face to face with Eric Ciaramella and members of former President Obama’s National Security Council (NSC), FBI, State Department and Department of Justice (DOJ). Ukrainian participants said it didn’t take long to realize the Americans’ objectives included two politically hot investigations: one involving Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, and one involving Paul Manafort's lobbying firm, linked closely to then-candidate Trump.
::*U.S. officials “kept talking about how important it was that all of our anti-corruption efforts be united,” said Andrii (Andrey, ''per'' White House visitor logs) Telizhenko, then a political officer in the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington tasked with organizing the meeting.
::*Telizhenko said U.S. officials said that they had an interest in reviving a closed 2014 investigation into payments to U.S. figures from Ukraine’s Russia-backed Party of Regions. That 2014 investigation was focused on Manafort. The FBI closed the case without charging Manafort.
::*DOJ officials asking investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) if they could help find new evidence about the Party of Regions’ payments and its dealings with Americans. “It was definitely the case that led to the charges against Manafort and the leak to U.S. media during the 2016 election,” Telizhenko said.