In a bombshell exposé published on his Substack, investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger has uncovered shocking ties between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and the 2019 impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump. According to Shellenberger’s findings, USAID-funded research and a CIA whistleblower were instrumental in the push to remove Trump from office.
The impeachment, initiated by the House of Representatives on December 18, 2019, was based on allegations that Trump misused his presidential power. At the center of these accusations was a CIA analyst and Obama-era holdover, Eric Ciaramella, who claimed Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden in exchange for military aid. However, Ciaramella was not even on the infamous July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky. Instead, his complaint was built on second-hand information—reportedly provided by Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman.
Shellenberger’s investigation reveals that Ciaramella’s complaint was largely based on reports from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), an organization that presents itself as independent but is, in fact, deeply intertwined with USAID. A recently unearthed documentary produced by German broadcaster NDR confirms that USAID not only finances OCCRP but also influences its operations.
Further scrutiny into OCCRP’s funding sources reveals a troubling pattern. Initial funding came from the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, raising questions about the extent of government involvement in the narratives pushed by OCCRP. In essence, an organization financially supported by the U.S. government played a pivotal role in fueling the impeachment narrative against a sitting president.
USAID’s involvement in political operations is not unprecedented, but Shellenberger’s findings suggest a far more insidious connection between intelligence agencies and politically charged media reports. If true, this would mean that taxpayer dollars were used, directly or indirectly, to manufacture a political scandal aimed at undermining Trump’s presidency.
Further complicating the scenario is the discovery of OCCRP’s initial funding sources which include the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
OCCRP has long been under scrutiny for its involvement in shaping political discourse worldwide, with critics arguing that its funding sources compromise its supposed journalistic independence. The discovery that USAID, an entity known for covert operations in foreign countries, has such a significant stake in OCCRP raises serious concerns about whether the impeachment effort was, in part, orchestrated from within the U.S. government itself.
Shellenberger wrote in his Substack:
The OCCRP report alleged that two Soviet-born Florida businessmen were “key hidden actors behind a plan” by Trump to investigate the Bidens. According to the story, those two businessmen connected Giuliani to two former Ukrainian prosecutors. The OCCRP story was crucial to the House Democrats’ impeachment claim, which is that Trump dispatched Giuliani as part of a coordinated effort to pressure a foreign country to interfere in the 2020 presidential election, which is why the whistleblower cited it four times.
In a 2024 documentary that German television broadcaster NDR made about OCCRP’s dependence on the US government, a USAID official confirmed that USAID approves OCCRP’s “annual work plan” and approves new hires of “key personnel.” NDR initiated and carried out the investigation with French investigative news organization Mediapart, Italian new group Il Fatto Quotidiano, Reporters United in Greece, and Drop Site News in the United States.
However, according to a Mediapart story published the same day as the Drop Site News article, NDR censored the broadcast “after US journalist Drew Sullivan, the co-founder and head of the OCCRP, placed pressure on the NDR management and made false accusations against the broadcaster’s journalists involved in the project.”
[…]
OCCRP does not operate like a normal investigative journalism organization in that its goals appear to include interfering in foreign political matters, including elections, aimed at regime change. Sullivan told NDR that his organization had “probably been responsible for five or six countries changing over from one government to another government… and getting prime ministers indicted or thrown out.”
As such, it appears that CIA, USAID, and OCCRP were all involved in the impeachment of President Trump in ways similar to the regime change operations that all three organizations engage in abroad. The difference is that it is highly illegal and even treasonous for CIA, USAID, and its contractors and intermediaries, known as “cut-outs,” to interfere in US politics this way.
WATCH:
The House of Representatives impeached President Donald Trump on December 18, 2019, after a White House whistleblower went public with evidence that Trump abused his powers by withholding military aid to Ukraine in order to dig up dirt on his rival, Joe Biden.
In the complaint,… pic.twitter.com/rZ6gTazw5v
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) February 5, 2025
Shellenberger’s revelations have already sparked outrage among Trump supporters and free speech advocates, who argue that this is yet another example of the intelligence community waging war against a democratically elected president. The report further supports claims that the Deep State actively worked against Trump during his time in office, using bureaucratic channels and covert funding streams to push an anti-Trump agenda.
These revelations also call into question the legitimacy of the impeachment itself. If the primary sources of evidence for the allegations against Trump were manufactured or influenced by government-funded entities, was the impeachment truly about justice, or was it a calculated political hit job?
The implications of Shellenberger’s findings are massive. If USAID and the CIA were involved in shaping the narrative that led to Trump’s impeachment, it raises alarming concerns about the extent to which unelected government officials can manipulate political outcomes. The American people deserve to know if their own government agencies were complicit in what could be described as a coordinated effort to remove a sitting president.
This latest exposé serves as yet another reminder that the fight for truth is far from over. Shellenberger’s work underscores the importance of independent journalism in uncovering the hidden machinations of political power. The question now is: Will there be accountability, or will this latest revelation be buried like so many others before it?
One thing is clear—this story isn’t over. Stay tuned as more details emerge about what could be one of the most shocking political scandals in modern American history.