USAID tied to Trump's 2019 impeachment, Shellenberger reports

By newseditors // 2025-02-13

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Investigative journalist Michael Shellenberger has revealed that the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the CIA played a direct role in the 2019 impeachment effort against President Donald Trump, alleging it was a domestic regime change operation orchestrated under the guise of foreign aid and investigative journalism. (Article republished from YourNews.com)

“USAID’s defenders say it’s about charity and development in poor nations. It’s not. It’s a $40 billion driver of regime change abroad. And now the evidence suggests that it, along with the CIA, were behind the 2019 impeachment of Trump—an illegal regime change effort at home,” Shellenberger wrote in a post on X on Wednesday night, linking to his findings here.

USAID's defenders say it's about charity and development in poor nations. It's not. It's a $40 billion driver of regime change abroad. And now the evidence suggests that it, along with the CIA, were behind the 2019 impeachment of Trump — an illegal regime change effort at home. pic.twitter.com/6HxUPiVpFX
— Michael Shellenberger (@shellenberger) February 5, 2025

Shellenberger detailed how a CIA analyst stationed in the White House during the Obama administration played a critical role in triggering Trump’s first impeachment by filing a whistleblower complaint. That complaint relied heavily on a report by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)—a media outlet directly funded and controlled by USAID. In a video and transcript post on X, Shellenberger broke down his findings, explaining that the whistleblower complaint was based on a report by OCCRP, which was cited four times in the official complaint here.

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

The OCCRP report at the center of the complaint alleged that two Soviet-born Florida businessmen connected Rudy Giuliani with former Ukrainian prosecutors, thereby linking Trump’s attorney to an effort to investigate Joe Biden and Hunter Biden ahead of the 2020 election. A 2024 documentary by German TV network NDR confirmed that USAID oversees OCCRP’s hiring and funding, approving key personnel and the organization’s annual work plan. However, the documentary was later censored after OCCRP co-founder Drew Sullivan pressured the network to suppress its findings. French investigative outlet Mediapart, which participated in the documentary, reported that Sullivan boasted OCCRP 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”. Shellenberger contends that the CIA, USAID, and OCCRP worked together to oust Trump in 2019, mirroring the same regime change operations they execute abroad.

“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,” Shellenberger stated.

“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 U.S. politics this way."

After Shellenberger and his outlet Public published their findings, OCCRP reportedly threatened legal action but did not refute the allegations.

“Neither OCCRP nor anyone else disproved Drop Site’s allegations, and Drop Site stands by them,” Shellenberger confirmed.

“The evidence does not support OCCRP’s claim of journalistic independence."

Shellenberger’s findings emerge just as President Trump moves to dismantle USAID, underscoring his longstanding claims that U.S. intelligence agencies have engaged in domestic political interference.

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