US State Department exposed as key funder of journalism giant linked to Trump impeachment: Report

A consortium of independent news outfits helped make sense of a possible skew on the part of a giant international journalism organization that had a hand in the first impeachment of President Donald Trump and in the targeting of perceived adversaries of the American political establishment, jointly reporting Monday that it is majoritively funded by the U.S. State Department.

The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project is a massive investigative journalism organization that has collaborated over the years with newsrooms on all continents, including the New York Times, the Washington Post, Rolling Stone, the Guardian, and the Times (U.K.). It has played a key role in the production of various consequential stories, including the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers, the Swedish telecom bribery scandal, and the "Russian Laundromat" money laundering scheme.

The OCCRP claims on its website that its investigations have so far contributed to over $10 billion in fines levied and seized assets; 430 official investigations; 251 "civil society reactions"; 820 governmental actions; 135 resignations and terminations; 736 indictments, arrests, and sentences; and 135 corporate actions.

Drew Sullivan, the organization's co-founder and publisher, reportedly bragged to the news consortium that reported on the OCCRP's American backing — comprising the left-leaning Drop Site Substack and a handful of European news outlets — that the OCCRP has "probably been responsible for about five or six countries changing over from one government to another government," citing Bosnia and Kyrgyzstan, as well as two NATO countries, Montenegro and the Czech Republic, as examples.

'What is true is that OCCRP has accepted funding from USG. We understand that reasonable people may believe that's a bad idea.'

Drop Site noted Monday that in many cases, the targets of the OCCRP's "game-changing exposés" were U.S. adversaries.

It appears, however, that at least one adversary was a domestic critic of the American deep state: President Donald Trump. The OCCPR reports were cited four times in the whistleblower complaint regarding Trump's 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

According to Drop Site, the OCCRP has been less than forthright about its origins and funding.

For instance, the OCCRP suggested on its website that it was launched initially with the help of funds from the United Nations Democracy Fund; however, that money reportedly made its way elsewhere and predated the formation of the OCCRP. Drop Site News indicated that it is "more accurate to say the first million dollars that made the creation of OCCRP possible came from the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs — known as INL, part of the State Department — in 2008."

The OCCRP lists among its supporters the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development along with George Soros' Open Society Foundations and the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. Critics have suggested that while admitting to receiving funds from the U.S. government, the OCCRP has appeared reluctant to advertise that the U.S. was its primary backer.

According to the joint report, 52% of the money spent by the OCCRP between 2014 and 2023 was provided by the U.S. government.

Sullivan told the consortium that U.S. grant money redirected from the OCCRP to other organizations shouldn't be counted. Even then, U.S. government funds would reportedly account for roughly 46% of his organization's budget.

The OCCRP's board of directors said in a statement obtained by the news consortium,

What is true is that OCCRP has accepted funding from USG. We understand that reasonable people may believe that's a bad idea, especially since it is not the norm in journalism in the United States (although government support of journalism is not uncommon in Europe and elsewhere). This was thoroughly discussed years ago when OCCRP was founded. The Board at that time — which included several of us who remain on the Board and whose personal reputations as journalists and executives are impeccable — decided that it was worth the tradeoff for the investigative journalism OCCRP could produce with this financial support.

Shannon Maguire, a former official with the National Endowment for Democracy who reportedly now runs the OCCRP file at the U.S. Agency for International Development, said that the U.S. government is proud of the work it has done supporting the organization.

"We're proud that we're the first public donor, that USAID is the first public donor, and the U.S. government is the first public donor to assist OCCR," Maguire told the consortium.

'US government weaponizes @OCCRP reporting.'

Maguire reportedly indicated that despite an alleged editorial firewall, the funding is conditional on the U.S. government's ability to veto senior personnel and editorial staff.

If Sullivan wants to change key personnel, Maguire indicated he must first ask U.S. officials for permission.

Democratic USAID administrator Samantha Power referred to the OCCRP as a "partner" at a Foreign Policy magazine event in November 2021. This "partner," which can apparently be controlled, unlike Wikileaks — deemed a security threat by the U.S. military — benefited from the Russian collusion hoax, securing significant funds as a result of bipartisan congressional efforts to fund the State Department's efforts to tackle "Russian disinformation."

Drop Site indicated that between 2015 and 2019, the U.S. State Department dumped $2.2 million into the OCCRP with the stated aim of "Balancing the Russian Media Sphere." The State Department poured another $1.7 million into the organization between 2019 and 2023 for the supposed purpose of "Strengthening investigative Journalism in Eurasia." Similar initiatives executed by the OCCRP have also been fueled by millions of American taxpayer dollars in recent years.

In other words, the supposedly editorially independent outfit receives money with the obligation to spend it investigating issues deemed priorities by the U.S. State Department.

Yann Philippin, a co-author of the damning report who sits on the board of European Investigative Collaborations, noted on X that the "US government weaponizes @OCCRP reporting by paying the journalistic organization to launch judicial investigations, sanctions and lobbying actions based on the articles published. This program has been overseen at @OCCRP by a former US State Department official."

'The truth is we don't know how deep the influence goes in some newsrooms.'

Extra to the perceived threat of internalizing American national biases, the OCCRP might also have to contend with domestic liberal biases from its veto-wielding benefactor. The Hill reported that ahead of the 2016 election, over 99% of contributions from employees at the State Department — which backs and apparently oversees the OCCRP — went to Hillary Clinton, who previously served as secretary of state.

Speaking to Drop Site, a top editor in Latin America who has worked with OCCRP suggested that the news organization "doesn't have to provide the U.S. government with any info to be useful to them. It's an army of 'clean hands' investigating outside the U.S."

"But it's always other people's corruption," said the editor. "If you're getting paid by the U.S. government to do anti-corruption work, you know that the money is going to get shut off if you bite the hand that feeds you. Even if you don't want to take U.S. government money directly, you look around and almost every major philanthropic funder has partnered with them on some initiative, and it gives the impression that you can only go so far and still get funded to do journalism. The truth is we don't know how deep the influence goes in some newsrooms."

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