Ex-Russia Adviser Fiona Hill Ignores Reports, Calls Ukraine Meddling in 2016 'Fictional Narrative'
Dr. Fiona Hill, a former adviser with the National Security Council, testified Thursday as part of the impeachment inquiry that Republicans are propagating the idea of Ukrainian meddling in the 2016 presidential election, which she claimed is a “fictional narrative.”
However, a Ukrainian court in December 2018 found that officials in that country did meddle in the 2016 U.S. election, The New York Times reported.
Additionally, in a lengthy piece in January 2017 titled, “Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump backfire,” Politico chronicled the dealings of Democratic National Committee operative Alexandra Chalupa who worked with officials from Ukraine to hurt the Trump campaign.
Despite these reports, the former top Russia expert for the White House testified on Thursday before the House Intelligence Committee, “Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did.”
NEW: Dr. Fiona Hill, ex-top Trump Russia adviser, calls out Republicans on House committee for spreading discredited Russian conspiracies
“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves” https://t.co/TcbZ34p8ex pic.twitter.com/Msi4JUhPdc
— Yahoo News (@YahooNews) November 21, 2019
“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” Hill said.
She added, “And as I told this Committee last month, I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a U.S. adversary and that Ukraine — not Russia — attacked us in 2016.
“These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes.”
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff has repeatedly mocked Republicans for propagating a “conspiracy theory” about Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
In his opening statement on Thursday, Schiff charged that President Donald Trump, in his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, pressed the new leader to conduct investigations “that would help his re-election campaign.”
One investigation Trump sought, Schiff said, was into “a discredited conspiracy theory that Ukraine, and not Russia, was responsible for interfering in our 2016 election.”
The chairman apparently was dismissing the idea that both Russia and Ukraine interfered in the race.
House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes has been one of the members of the Intelligence Committee who has raised the issue of Ukrainian interference in 2016 multiple times.
In remarks on Thursday, he said, “President Trump had good reason to be wary of Ukrainian election meddling against his campaign and of widespread corruption in that country.”
“It’s not President Trump who got caught, it’s the Democrats who got caught,” Nunes said.
“[T]hey got caught covering up for Alexandra Chalupa, a Democratic National Committee operative, who colluded with Ukrainian officials to smear the Trump campaign.”
Chalupa’s parents immigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine and her family maintains strong ties there.
Nunes noted that Chalupa has refused to testify in the impeachment proceedings.
Nunes said, “Whether the Democrats reap the political benefit they want from this impeachment remains to be seen, but the damage they have done to this country will be long-lasting.”
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