Fiona Hill began testifying in the House Democrats’ Ukraine whistleblower impeachment inquiry, with the former Trump administration adviser on Russia and Europe expected to shed light on U.S. interactions with Ukraine that critics say went beyond normal diplomatic channels.
Hill, 54, finished her White House duties on the National Security Council just before the July 25 phone call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the American leader leaned on his counterpart to investigate allegations of 2016 election interference and of corruption related to Joe and Hunter Biden.
Hill, a dual U.S.-U.K. citizen, on Monday appeared at the congressional hearing under subpoena, according to her lawyer, Lee Wolosky. She’s expected to say Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland circumvented the National Security Council and the normal White House process to pursue a shadow policy on Ukraine.
Giuliani, in an interview with the Washington Examiner, disputed that assertion.
“I don’t know her, but I didn’t do anything the State Department didn’t ask me to do,” Giuliani said.
Hill didn’t respond to a request for comment and Sondland declined comment through his attorney.
Hill will also testify she “was unaware of some aspects of the escalating Ukraine scandal” according to CNN. Kurt Volker, the resigned U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, made a similar claim that “at no time was [he] aware” of the effort by Giuliani and others to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens.
House Democrats’ interest in Hill’s testimony goes beyond the Ukraine whistleblower issues. She’s an associate of Christopher Steele, the British ex-spy who produced the 2016 dossier on then-presidential candidate Trump, which included salacious allegations about his past activities in Moscow as a businessman. House Democrats hope that with Hill’s front row seat to Russia-related events, she can provide details about Trump’s conversations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and the May 2017 Oval Office meeting between Trump and two top Russian officials.
Previously, Hill worked as a national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council from 2006 to 2009 and at the Brookings Institution from 2009 until 2017, when she was tapped for her Trump administration role.
