To Exonerate Trump, Republicans Embrace Russian Disinformation

[JonLP24]

On Friday, House investigators released the transcript of the former National Security Council official Fiona Hill’s testimony from last month. It showed a Republican staff member trying and failing to get Hill to concede that there might be some validity to the conspiracy theories underlying Donald Trump’s demands of President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine.

“Are you familiar with the, you know, the allegation about Serhiy Leshchenko?” asked the Republican aide, Steve Castor. He added, “You know, relating to publicizing Manafort’s role in the Ukraine?”

Leshchenko, whom I interviewed in October, is a former member of Parliament in Ukraine and probably the most famous investigative journalist in the country. He helped expose the so-called black ledger that listed $12.7 million in secret payments to Paul Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, from his client Viktor Yanukovych, the wildly corrupt Russian-aligned oligarch who ruled Ukraine until 2014. Manafort is in federal prison in part for failing to disclose or pay taxes on the millions he sucked out of Ukraine. Nevertheless, to make Trump’s demands of Zelensky seem just and rational, some Republicans have started painting Manafort as the victim of Leshchenko’s plotting.

Hill, a Russia expert and co-author of a psychological study of Vladimir Putin, tried to shut down this line of questioning. “The Ukrainian government did not interfere in the U.S. election,” she said, adding, “The Ukrainian Special Services also did not interfere in our election.” As the Republican questions continued, Hill seems to have grown almost indignant. “I’m really worried about these conspiracy theories, and I’m worried that all of you are going to go down a rabbit hole, you know, looking for things that are not going to be at all helpful to the American people or to our future election in 2020,” she said.


https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/11/opinion/republicans-trump-impeachment-hearings.html

[thewhollytoast]

1. enough is enough.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

2. going down the rabbit hole helps GOPers keep Putin in our elections

GOPers can't win without cheating. Putin cheats to install fascists and useful idiots. GOPers do not want anyone to interfere with Putin's interference.

[calimary]

3. Thank God there are still people like Fiona Hill in the picture.

[malaise]

4. ReTHUGs were part of said disinformation

and most of them benefited from the Russian money

[Timmygoat]

5. Watching the hearing yesterday

I kept thinking about who chose the republican team - after all we got the Lurker in the bushes Nunes, the assistant coach who seems to think child molestation is a joke, and who still has not managed to wear a jacket, what could go wrong?

[AlexSFCA]

6. I bet not many wanted to be on that team

[malaise]

7. Isn't that the truth but at the end of the day the one thing everyone remembers is

Jordan being Welshed. The president can come here hahahahahhaha