WASHINGTON, DC — Dr. Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council (NSC) official, indicated to House impeachment investigators during a public hearing earlier this week that senior White House official Kash Patel did not try to misrepresent himself to President Trump as an all-knowing expert on Ukraine, as reported by Politico.
In other words, Hill, during her November 21 testimony, undermined two Politico reports that Patel claimed the news outlet gleaned from false leaks from House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-CA), the chief impeachment inquisitor.
In a defamation lawsuit filed November 18, Patel accused Natasha Bertrand, a national security reporter for Politico, of writing two false stories based on false information allegedly leaked by Schiff and his staff claiming the White House official was feeding Trump negative information about Ukraine. Bertrand suggested Patel misrepresented himself as a sort of top Ukraine expert or director of U.S. policy towards the country.
Hill’s testimony appears to suggest Patel stayed out of Ukraine matters. Patel is a former staffer for Rep. Devin Nunes from California, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee. After serving for Nunes, Patel later moved to the White House in the NSC to advise the president on national security and intelligence matters.
Hill resigned as the deputy assistant to the President and senior director for European and Russian Affairs at the NSC days before the July 25 phone call considered the crux of the impeachment inquiry. Former Trump national security adviser John Bolton served as Hill’s boss.
Hill was very involved in U.S. policy towards Ukraine, so if Patel would have played any role in pushing any sort of narrative about the Eastern European country, she would have likely been aware. Schiff and/or members of his staff leaked false information to Politico as part of a “scheme” to advance efforts to impeach and remove Trump.
Senior NSC counterterrorism official Patel filed a lawsuit last Monday accusing Politico of defaming him as it tried to fuel the House Democrats’ impeachment probe with false information that was supposed to originate from closed-door testimony.
To fit his narrative, Schiff allegedly provided altered information from the closed-door deposition obtained from Hill and NSC Director of European Affairs Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. Hill denied some of that information.
During Hill’s public hearing on Thursday, Daniel Goldman, the Democrat’ Intelligence Committee lawyer, asked Hill, “Kash Patel did not work on Ukraine matters that you oversaw, is that right?”
“Not that I oversaw, no,” Hill responded, contradicting, at least in part, the claims made by Politico.
Despite Hill’s denial, Goldman pressed, “So the indication is that Kash Patel had provided some information directly to the President without your knowledge?”
“That seems to be the indication,” she replied, apparently referring to news articles and hearsay by unnamed White House officials.
In other words, Hill did not have first-hand knowledge that Patel provided negative Ukraine information to Trump. She only presumed that he did after the Politico stories, based on information allegedly leaked by Schiff and his staff, came to light.
Via the Politico articles — one of which was published aheadof Hill’s public testimony —Schiff could have made it seem that Patel was providing negative Ukraine information to Trump to fit his impeachment agenda. It would have been unlikely for Hill, who was charged with Ukraine within the same office that employed Patel, not to know who was saying what about the Eastern European country to Trump.
Under questioning by a Democrat lawmaker, Hill explicitly denied that Patel had attempted to represent himself to the president as the director of Ukraine, which is what the information provided by Schiff and his staff to Politico suggested.
Attempting to put words in her mouth, Rep. Eric Swalwell asked the witness, “So I want to walk you through something you told us earlier. You said that you have evidence that as recently as this year, President Trump believes someone named Kash was that Ukraine director. Is that right?”
“It’s not really evidence. And look, I want to be very clear about this. I was asked a question about this in my [October 14 closed door] deposition. I did not raise it. And to be honest, I was surprised I was asked the question.”
During her deposition in October, Hill told investigators that Patel served in a leadership post focusing on counterterrorism for the NSC’s Directorate of International Organizations and Alliances.
When Daniel Noble, a senior counsel for the House Democrats pursuing the impeachment probe, asked Hill what appeared to be a leading question about Patel’s role at the NSC, Hill stressed that he was not the Ukraine director.
Echoing the Politico articles — again gleaned from allegedly false information provided by Schiff and his staff, Noble, not Hill, suggested that Trump relied on Patel as the NSC’s Ukraine director.
Noble said she was “confused” when an unnamed White House official described Patel as the Ukraine director who was expected to debrief Trump on Ukraine in May, soon after the inauguration of the country’s new President, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Hill pointed out that she was “surprised” an official described Patel as the NSC Ukrainian director, because that title belonged to Col. Vindman. She noted that she found out that Patel had a role on Ukraine, but not as director.
At Noble’s behest, Hill made it clear that she did not know in what capacity Patel was working on Ukraine or what sort of materials he was providing to the president about the country, if any.
Regarding the debriefing meeting, she added, “I had never heard any information to suggest that [Patel] was there.” Vindman, however, did participate.
Hill never brought up Patel during her October 14 deposition, as she indicated during her public hearing.
Noble, however, asked, “What was [Patel’s] role as far as you know?”
The former senior director for European and Russian Affairs at the NSC responded, “I thought, well, he is in our International 0rganizations Bureau and, you know, considerably he works on the U.N. and other related issues but he’s not the Ukraine director.
It appears the Democrats made an attempt to make Hill say Patel served as a Ukraine director, bypassing Vindman, but they failed. Had Hill identified Patel as the Ukraine director, she would have confirmed the Politico articles, at least in part, that the NSC official was misrepresenting himself to Trump. Again, Schiff and his staff leaked the allegedly false info behind the Politico reports allegedly berating Patel.
Patel filed a defamation lawsuit against Politico, Bertrand, and Robert Allbritton, the publisher and executive chairman of the media organization, all identified as defendants.
In the lawsuit, Patel proclaims:
Between October 14, 2019 and November 8, 2019, Politico and Bertrand colluded, collaborated and conspired with Schiff to defame Kash. Schiff, or members of his staff or aides acting at his direction, leaked to Bertrand the closed-door testimony that Hill and Vindman gave in the subfloor of the Capitol Visitor Center. The leaks occurred in real-time. Schiff leaked the testimony to Bertrand because Schiff knew that it would be a violation of House Rules and Committee Rules for Schiff to publish the substance of the testimony himself.
The joint collaborative purpose of the leaks was to publish Hill and Vindman’s false and defamatory statements, including Hill and Vindman’s egregious personal attacks on Kash, so as to further Schiff and Politico’s interests in harming the President and advancing the impeachment inquisition. In furtherance of the conspiracy, Bertrand secretly communicated with Schiff or his staff via encrypted email, including proton-mail, and messaging services, such as Signal.
The lawsuit identifies the two Bertrand Politico articles as “Nunes Protege Fed Ukraine Info to Trump“— published on October 23, and “Testimony: Nunes Acolyte Misrepresented to Trump as Ukraine Expert” published on October 30.
The articles suggest Patel tried to fill Trump’s mind with bad thoughts about Ukraine.
Patel is a former staffer for Nunes, who later moved to the White House in the NSC to advise the president on national security and intelligence matters.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.