November 8, 2019

Top NSC Official Says Mick Mulvaney Was Key Player in Trump-Ukraine Quid Pro Quo

AP Photo/Andrew Harnik

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On Friday afternoon, the House committees conducting the impeachment inquiry released the deposition of Fiona Hill, the former top Russia staffer on the White House National Security Council. The transcript is hundreds of pages long and covers many key areas of the Trump-Ukraine scandal. 

Our own David Corn has been poring over it and has some instant take-aways. As he notes, Hill’s testimony is significant because it depicts acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney as central to the administration’s efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate Trump’s domestic political enemies. Hill testified that Rudy Giuliani, who is Trump’s lawyer, was helping Russian disinformation efforts by spreading the debunked (but Trump-favored) conspiracy theory that Ukraine intervened in the 2016 US election. She also told lawmakers that Giuliani and his now-indicted business associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, mounted a campaign to oust US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch to advance their own business interests—and that she suspected Giuliani might have been involved in criminal activity. And Hill described how she has become the target of conspiracy theories that have led to death threats. More from David: 

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BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

“Lying.” “Disgusting.” “Scum.” “Slime.” “Corrupt.” “Enemy of the people.” Donald Trump has always made clear what he thinks of journalists. And it’s plain now that his administration intends to do everything it can to stop journalists from reporting things they don’t like—which is most things that are true.

No one gets to tell Mother Jones what to publish or not publish, because no one owns our fiercely independent newsroom. But that also means we need to directly raise the resources it takes to keep our journalism alive. There’s only one way for that to happen, and it’s readers like you stepping up. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

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