A veteran Democratic National Committee and former Clinton administration official worked with Ukrainian officials to push dirt about President-elect Trump to journalists in a bid to help Hillary Rodham Clinton win, according to a new report.

The lengthy investigative report, which described Ukraine as concerned that Trump would favor Russia if he won, said that the effort was coordinated with the Clinton campaign, raising questions of foreign involvement similar to the charges that Russia worked to help Trump.

"Donald Trump wasn't the only presidential candidate whose campaign was boosted by officials of a former Soviet bloc country," said the Politico investigation.

The story identifies Alexandra Chalupa as the leader of the effort, a DNC consultant, former Clinton aide and "Ukrainian-American operative." She was paid $412,000 from 2004-June 2016.

It said that she pushed information about Trump's former campaign chief Paul Manafort to reporters including Yahoo. Manafort was replaced by Trump amid concerns about his work for Ukraine's former leader, Viktor Yanukovych.

Said the report:

In an interview this month, Chalupa told Politico she had developed a network of sources in Kiev and Washington, including investigative journalists, government officials and private intelligence operatives. While her consulting work at the DNC this past election cycle centered on mobilizing ethnic communities — including Ukrainian-Americans — she said that, when Trump's unlikely presidential campaign began surging in late 2015, she began focusing more on the research, and expanded it to include Trump's ties to Russia, as well.

She occasionally shared her findings with officials from the DNC and Clinton's campaign, Chalupa said. In January 2016 — months before Manafort had taken any role in Trump's campaign — Chalupa told a senior DNC official that, when it came to Trump's campaign, "I felt there was a Russia connection," Chalupa recalled. "And that, if there was, that we can expect Paul Manafort to be involved in this election," said Chalupa, who at the time also was warning leaders in the Ukrainian-American community that Manafort was "Putin's political brain for manipulating U.S. foreign policy and elections."

Unlike the Russia hack story based on intelligence assumptions and reports, Politico's story shows a direct tie to Ukrainian officials, the Clinton campaign and the DNC. In the story, a Ukrainian official said, "They were coordinating an investigation with the Hillary team on Paul Manafort with Alexandra Chalupa."

Republican officials expressed dismay at the story.

In a statement today, Republican National Committee Deputy Communications Director Raj Shah said that the report "provides a detailed rundown – with participants of this effort going on the record – showing how Democrats coordinated with the Ukrainian embassy to drive negative stories about President-elect Donald Trump. The cozy relationship with a foreign government, had it been uncovered of Republican operatives, would have sparked outrage. But in this case, the Democrats aren't even denying it, and it seems like the media is letting them get away with it."

See the full story here.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, can be contacted at pbedard@washingtonexaminer.com