Former CIA Director John Brennan said he never saw any evidence that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Brennan, a vocal Trump critic who was head of the CIA under the Obama administration, praised former White House national security aide Fiona Hill for condemning theories mentioned by President Trump and his allies, saying she “had it exactly right.”
“There was no evidence that I ever saw that indicated that the Ukrainian government, the Ukrainians, were involved in trying to interfere in the election. It was Russia,” Brennan said Friday on MSNBC, where he is now a national security analyst.
Hill testified before the House Intelligence Committee on Wednesday as part of the impeachment proceedings led by House Democrats. She took aim at allegations of Ukrainian election interference that were brought up by the Republicans.
“Based on questions and statements I have heard, some of you on this committee appear to believe that Russia and its security services did not conduct a campaign against our country — and that perhaps, somehow, for some reason, Ukraine did,” Hill said.
“This is a fictional narrative that has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves. In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests,” she added.
The U.S. intelligence community concluded in 2017 that Russia was responsible for hacking thousands of Democratic emails and providing those stolen records to WikiLeaks for dissemination. The claim was bolstered through special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Independent investigations by the House and Senate also concluded the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 presidential election.
Intelligence officials reportedly briefed lawmakers on Russia’s disinformation campaign to blame election interference on Ukraine in recent weeks.
