Washington: A former top White House adviser on Russia said Thursday the ‘fictional narrative’ pushed by Donald Trump and the Republicans about Ukraine’s role in influencing the 2016 US election was propagated by Russia, as she testified before the House Intelligence Committee’s impeachment probe.
Fiona Hill, the former top Russia expert on the National Security Council, was testifying before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence as part of its series of public hearings on its impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump.
The impeachment inquiry centres on the accusation that Trump withheld a White House visit for Ukraine’s president and security aid for the country as leverage to push the government to announce investigations into former Vice-President Joseph Biden and the claim that Ukraine conspired to help Democrats in the 2016 election.
Hill said that such a fictional native is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russians.
“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. This is a fictional narrative that is being perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” Hill said.
“The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions in 2016. This is the public conclusion of our own intelligence agencies confirmed in bipartisan congressional reports. It is beyond dispute even if some of the underlying details must remain classified,” asserted Hill.
The impact of the successful 2016 Russian campaign remains evident today, Hill pointed out. “Our nation is being torn apart. Truth is questioned. Our highly professional expert career foreign service is being undermined. US support for Ukraine which continues to face unto Russian aggression has been politicised,” informed Hill.
She said the Russian government’s goal was to weaken the US, to diminish America’s global role and to neutralise a perceived US threat to Russian interest.
Hill said Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Russian security services aim to counter US foreign policy objectives in Europe including in Ukraine where Moscow wishes to reassert political economic dominance.
The White House however, continued to dismiss the impeachment testimonies.
“As has been the case throughout the Democrats’ impeachment sham, today’s witnesses rely heavily on their own presumptions, assumptions and opinions,” White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham told the media.
“These two witnesses, just like the rest, have no personal or direct knowledge regarding why US aid was temporarily withheld. The Democrats’ are clearly being motivated by a sick hatred for President Trump and their rabid desire to overturn the 2016 election. The American people deserve better,” Grisham said at the conclusion of the hearings Thursday.
During her regular press briefing Thursday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said that she believes the evidence is clear and shows Mr Trump used the American government as leverage for his own personal gain.
PTI
