Fiona Hill tells impeachment inquiry about a ‘fictional narrative’ on Ukrainian interference

Fiona Hill, the former White House adviser on Russia, opened her testimony before the impeachment inquiry Thursday with withering criticism of Republican attempts to sow doubt that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services,” Hill said in her opening statement.

The statement amounted to a rebuke of President Trump; Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee; and others who have advanced claims that it was Ukraine — and not Russia — that waged information warfare against the United States in 2016.

“Some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country,” she said.

Hill’s testimony sets the stage for an extraordinary development in the impeachment hearings, with Trump’s former top adviser on Russia essentially telling the public under oath that his refusal to accept the reality of Moscow’s intervention in 2016 is wrong.

“The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions,” Hill said. “It is beyond dispute.”

Thursday’s hearing also includes testimony from David Holmes, a U.S. diplomat who described increasing concern in the American embassy in Ukraine as it became clear that Trump was pressuring the country’s new leader to investigate Democratic rivals. Holmes provided details about a phone call he witnessed in Kyiv in which U.S. diplomat Gordon Sondland and Trump discussed efforts to get Ukraine to commit to the investigations Trump wanted.