CNN 2017:
Chalupa, who maintained other clients while working for the DNC, does say she had a "couple" meetings with "representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy," but that those meetings had to do with an "Immigrant Heritage Month women's networking event" she helped organize in June with Melanne Verveer, a Ukrainian-American and former US Ambassador for Global Women's Issues at the State Department under Hillary Clinton.
"We never got any actual information. It didn't go beyond running by someone in a hallway and hearing rumors," the source said. "It was hearsay in the hallway conversation, there was never any formal conversation or paper research."
In her statement to CNN, Chalupa denied that she ever suggested working with the Ukrainian embassy to dig up dirt.
"The Embassy of Ukraine has never coordinated with the DNC on opposition research. Embassy officials worked with Alexandra Chalupa and a Ukrainian-American advocacy group last year on cultural events, but they did not assist Alexandra in providing any information related to the US election," the Ukrainian embassy said in statement. "While some politicians who are not part of the Ukrainian government might have taken sides during last year's election, the government and the Embassy of Ukraine did not."
Fox 2019 (with links to The Hill and Politico stories):
Ambassador Valeriy Chaly said DNC contractor Alexandra Chalupa pushed for Ukraine's then-President Petro Poroshenko to mention Paul Manafort's ties to Ukraine publicly during a visit to the U.S., and sought detailed financial information on his dealings in the country,
The Hill reported. At the time, Manafort was Trump's campaign chairman.
"The Embassy got to know Ms. Chalupa because of her engagement with Ukrainian and other diasporas in Washington D.C., and not in her DNC capacity. We’ve learned about her DNC involvement later," Chaly said in a statement released by the Ukrainian embassy. "We were surprised to see Alexandra’s interest in Mr. Paul Manafort’s case. It was her own cause. The Embassy representatives unambiguously refused to get involved in any way, as we were convinced that this is a strictly U.S. domestic matter."
Chaly continued: "All ideas floated by Alexandra were related to approaching a Member of Congress with a purpose to initiate hearings on Paul Manafort or letting an investigative journalist ask President Poroshenko a question about Mr. Manafort during his public talk in Washington, D.C."
Last month, Ukraine
Prosecutor General Yurii Lutsenko opened a probe into the so-called "black ledger" files that led to Manafort's abrupt departure from the Trump campaign. The investigation commenced after an unearthed
audio recording showed that a senior Ukrainian anticorruption official apparently admitted to leaking Manafort's financial information in 2016 -- including his ties to pro-Russian actors in Ukraine -- to benefit Clinton.
Ukrainian law enforcement officials said earlier this month they had a slew of evidence of collusion and wrongdoing by Democrats and were trying to share the information with U.S. officials in the Justice Department.
A Ukrainian court recently ruled that the Manafort document leak amounted to illegal interference in the U.S. election by parliamentarian Serhiy Leshchenko and Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
A
2017 investigation by Politico found that Ukrainian officials not only publicly sought to undermine Trump by questioning his fitness for office, but also worked behind the scenes to secure a Clinton victory.
Among other initiatives, Politico found, the Ukrainian government worked with Chalupa to conduct opposition research against Trump, including going after Manafort for Russian ties, helping lead to his resignation.
