Impeachment witnesses pressed Ukraine to drop Soros-group probe

George Soros (Wikimedia Commons)

Two U.S. diplomats to Ukraine testifying in the impeachment investigation of President Trump this week pressed Ukraine during the 2016 election to stop its investigation of a non-profit funded in part by the State Department and George Soros, who spent millions that year to help Hillary Clinton win the White House.

The non-profit also collaborated with the FBI agents investigating one-time Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort's business activities with pro-Russian figures in Ukraine.

Investigative reporter John Solomon recalled on Thursday the story he first reported in March because it sheds light on what he terms "the real Ukraine controversy," the alleged meddling by the Obama State Department in the affairs of a sovereign nation, contrary to the Geneva Convention, on behalf of a non-profit funded by a left-wing activist billionaire.

George Kent, the chargé d'affaires of the U.S. Embassy in Kiev, requested in a letter to the Ukrainian general prosecutor's office in April 2016 that its prosecution of the Anti-Corruption Action Center be dropped.

TRENDING: Athlete spreads gospel on national TV after winning third NCAA title: 'It's all for His glory'

And a few months later, Ukraine's new general prosecutor, Yuri Lutsenko, told Solomon he was stunned when U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch "gave me a list of people whom we should not prosecute," including the Anti-Corruption Action Center.

Democrats charging President Trump withheld aid to pressure Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son had Kent testify Wednesday before the House Intelligence Committee and scheduled Yovanovitch for Friday.

Solomon wrote that Ukrainian officials told him the U.S. diplomats' implied message to Ukrainian prosecutors "was clear: Don't target AntAC in the middle of an America presidential election in which Soros was backing Hillary Clinton to succeed another Soros favorite, Barack Obama."

"We ran right into a buzzsaw and we got bloodied," a senior Ukrainian official told Solomon.

The Ukrainian officials saw it an unusual intervention.

"We're not normally in the business of telling a country's police force who they can and can't pursue, unless it involves an American citizen we think is wrongly accused," one official said.

Solomon reported that, ultimately, no action was taken against the Soros group and it remains thriving today.