President Trump's ex-Russia Adviser Tells U.S. Lawmakers To Stop Promoting Russian Election Interference 'Falsehoods'

Reuters: Trump ex-Russia adviser Hill tells U.S. lawmakers to stop promoting 'falsehoods'

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump’s former Russia adviser Fiona Hill urged lawmakers in the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry on Thursday not to promote “politically driven falsehoods” that cast doubt on Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

In her prepared testimony, Hill said some members of the House Intelligence Committee, based on their questions and statements, appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against the United States during the 2016 presidential race and that perhaps Ukraine did.

Hill appeared to be referring to some of President Donald Trump’s Republican allies and defenders on the committee in the impeachment inquiry focusing on his actions toward Ukraine.

“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves,” said Hill, who until July served as the director for European and Russian affairs at the White House National Security Council.

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WNU Editor: Regular readers of this blog know that I have been following this story (i.e. Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election) since day one. And aside from reports that Russia spent about $100,000 in Facebook ads and maybe (and it is a big maybe) gave Wikileaks hacked Democratic emails that revealed how the Democrat primary was fixed to make sure that Hillary Clinton would win, I have yet to see any tangible and real evidence from anyone on how the Russian government interfered in any meaningful way in the 2016 election. It is true that in the past three years we have heard from numerous intelligence officials like the above former Russia adviser Fiona Hill saying that Russia was successful in doing this, but when pressed to provide evidence always responded by saying it is either classified and/or you have to trust us. In a normal situation I can understand this position. Secrets need to be kept secret. But this is not a normal situation. Allegations of Russian interference has dominated the Washington political scene since the 2016 election, and it has paralyzed the White House with claims that President Trump colluded with the Russians. It has also increased tensions between the two super-powers, while crippling any meaningful progress on arms control. I think we need to know why we are where we are today. That is why I believe the evidence that the U.S. intelligence community used to make the claim that Russia interfered in the election should be declassified. We do need to know how the Russian intelligence agencies specifically did it, who did they target, how did they target them, who was influenced by them, and how did this specifically impact the 2016 election results.We need to have this open debate, and the sooner the better with the 2020 election only a year away. Unfortunately .... I do not see this  happening.

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