Serhiy Leshchenko

Serhiy Leshchenko (Сергій Лещенко) is a Ukrainian parliamentarian and journalist who colluded with the Democratic National Committee and 2016 Clinton campaign to interfere in 2016 U.S. presidential election. Leshchenko was convicted in December 2018 by a Ukrainian court of meddling in the U.S. elections.

Black Ledger File

On Aug. 14, 2016, The New York Times broke their blockbuster story alleging that payments to Paul Manafort had been uncovered from the Party of Regions “black box”—the 400-page handwritten ledger released by Leshchenko. The article proved to be a fatal blow for Manafort, who resigned from the Trump campaign just days later.

On Aug. 19, 2016, Deep State colluder Michael 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, who told him that the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NACB) of Ukraine “have to interrogate him. … This has to happen.”

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 the Yahoo News fake news website “that ledgers in the book include 22 separate entries for Manafort—most of them for fees under his contract as a political consultant to the party, but others for exit polls, computers, international observers and other expenses.”

Mentioned in the same article was DNC operative Alexandra Chalupa, with whom Isikoff had been working: “I’m ecstatic that Paul Manafort resigned from the Trump campaign,” Chalupa told Yahoo News. “Mr. Manafort is someone who spent the last decades working against our nation’s foreign policy interests overseas, as most recently demonstrated in Ukraine when he worked for Putin’s former puppet president, Viktor Yanukovych.”

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:

“Leshchenko said he discussed Manafort’s role in Ukrainian politics with Chalupa, the Democratic consultant, last year. Leshchenko said Manafort ‘kept his eyes blind to all the corruption’ by the Ukrainian politicians he was advising years ago.”

Election interference

The day after election day, Alexandra Chalupa posted a message to Facebook about work done in conjunction between the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security and an Anonymous-based organisation known as “The Protectors” based in Washington, DC.

“Homeland Security/DOJ teamed up with a group that is part of Anonymous based in Washington, D.C. called ‘The Protectors’. This group saw a lot of activity during Election Day from the Russians and believe that the voting results projected don’t match the internal and public polls because the voting results were manufactured in favor of Trump in heavily Republican counties in key states, and voting results may have been described for Clinton in key Democratic countries via malware that was placed by the Russians when they hacked the election systems of more than half our states.” 

On July 24, 2017, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) sent a letter to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein regarding Chalupa, noting that her actions

appear to show that she was simultaneously working on behalf of a foreign government, Ukraine, and on behalf of the DNC and Clinton campaign, in an effort to influence not only the U.S. voting population but U.S. government officials.

Grassley asked why the DOJ hadn't required Chalupa to register under the Foreign Agents Registration Act and also asked if the DOJ was

investigating links and coordination between the Ukrainian government and individuals associated with the campaign of Hillary Clinton or the Democratic National Committee? If not, why not?

See also

• Ukrainian collusion