Former NSC official Fiona Hill admits Russia is unlikely to have been blackmailed by Trump

A former National Security Council (NSC) official who testified that then President Donald Trump tried to use the Ukrainian government for a “domestic political race” rejected the theory that the Kremlin had damaging information about the 45th president that he used to extract concessions from him. .

“What Putin had on Trump is what everyone else had – the recognition of his extreme vulnerability to manipulation,” Fiona Hill told The Daily Beast in an interview published Monday.

The idea that Trump was particularly vulnerable to blackmail from Moscow took root even before his inauguration, when BuzzFeed News published the now infamous dossier compiled by former MI6 ghost Christopher Steele. Among the many salacious claims in the case: that the Russian secret service had a video of Trump paying prostitutes to urinate on the bed of the presidential suite at the Ritz-Carlton in Moscow.

The theory gained traction after Trump met with Putin in Helsinki, Finland, in 2018. In a joint post-summit press conference, the US president refused to accuse Russia of meddling in the election campaign. of 2016, telling reporters that Putin said “it’s not Russia.” and adding: “I see no reason why this would be the case.”

Hill, of British origin, who deals with European and Russian affairs at the NSC, reminded the Daily Beast that before the Helsinki summit, Trump asked her if she thought Putin would like him.

“I never had time to respond before he moved on,” she said, adding that the then president had “the envy of an autocrat” and was ” a risk of counterintelligence and national security because he was so vulnerable to manipulation based on the fragility of his ego.

“Anyone could make him do something by raising the specter of someone insulting or praising him,” Hill continued. “His ideology was idolatry.

Hill was thrown into the public eye at the end of 2019, when she testified before the House Intelligence Committee during its inquiry into whether Trump wrongly pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate the then presidential candidate Joe Biden, his son Hunter and the latter’s work for Ukrainian energy. Burisma company.

During his testimony, Hill recalled that then national security adviser John Bolton became enraged after learning that Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani had taken the initiative to run a side campaign. foreign policy to persuade Ukraine to launch the investigations Trump wanted.

She added that Bolton told her to keep an eye on the situation and report to the NSC chief counsel. According to Hill, Bolton had described Giuliani as a “hand grenade that will blow everyone up.”

As Giuliani increased the pressure on Kiev, Hill said Bolton ordered him to raise the matter with White House attorney John Eisenberg.

“I am not part of any drug trafficking whatsoever [then-US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon] Sondland and [then-acting White House chief of staff Mick] Mulvaney is cooking, ”she recalled, telling Bolton.

Trump was impeached by the House of Representatives in January 2020 over two articles: abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. He was acquitted by the Senate the following month.