https://thefederalist.com/2025/06/06/ohr-memo-confirms-clinton-team-had-early-knowledge-of-ukrainian-black-ledger/
https://www.grassley.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/nellie_ohr_fbi_analysis.pdf
The newly released Nellie Ohr documents from Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, have already made waves for two major reasons. First, they show the FBI
concluded Nellie Ohr lied to Congress and then failed to act on it. Second, they revealed an internal FBI “black hole” filing system designed to bury
evidence that contradicted or disproved the Donald Trump-Russia narrative, shielding it not just from the public but from the FBI’s own agents.
Yet there’s more. Buried in the release is also confirmation of another key aspect of how the Russiagate smear unfolded, one that has so far escaped much
attention: Clinton campaign operative Ohr appears to have had advance knowledge of the so-called “black ledger” operation by Ukrainian officials.
This operation ultimately led to the political downfall of Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort in 2016. This information also provides more evidence
that it wasn’t Trump who colluded with foreign powers against domestic opponents — it was Democrats.
While the broad outlines of this connection between the Clinton campaign and Ukraine have been known for some time, the newly released documents reveal
the FBI was aware of Ohr’s foreknowledge as early as 2019. That’s when a report on her activities was written — but the FBI took no action.
Notably, this was before the first impeachment of President Trump, which was triggered by his inquiries into corruption in Ukraine. This detail confirms
the strong likelihood that the Clinton campaign was more directly involved in the Ukrainian effort to smear Trump than was previously acknowledged.
The American public didn’t learn about the ledger until August 15, 2016, when The New York Times ran a front-page story accusing Manafort of receiving
off-the-books cash payments from the Party of Regions, the political party of Ukraine’s deposed president, Viktor Yanukovych. But according to Grassley’s
release, Nellie Ohr had already tipped off her husband, Bruce Ohr — then a senior DOJ official — along with two prosecutors from the DOJ’s Organized
Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, on May 30, 2016.
Even more striking, that alert came a full day before the first known public mention of the ledger in Ukrainian press. That May 31 article, co-authored
by anti-Trump activist Serhiy Leshchenko, mentioned the ledger’s existence but made no reference to Manafort or U.S. politics. In congressional testimony,
Nellie Ohr later admitted that Leshchenko was one of her sources at Fusion GPS and had passed along information about Manafort.
Leshchenko has been candid about his motives. Speaking to the Financial Times in 2016, he said his goal in publicizing the ledger was to intervene in the
U.S. elections to damage Trump, whom he described as a pro-Russian candidate who could destabilize the global order. Notably, Leshchenko now serves as an
advisor within Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s inner circle, a disturbing fact considering his history of actively promoting anti-Trump disinformation.
Ohr’s foreknowledge and contact with Leshchenko provide more evidence that the Clinton campaign, through Fusion GPS, was not only behind the fake Steele
and Alfa Bank dossiers, but also acted as a conduit between Ukrainian political operatives and U.S. law enforcement. These efforts laundered foreign
political propaganda into the DOJ and FBI under the guise of international criminal intelligence.