NEW: US diplomat George Kent testifies to the impeachment inquiry that Russian President Putin, Hungarian PM Orban and Rudy Giuliani helped poison President Trump's views on Ukraine.
Kent testified that he took notes in mid-May of a conversation he had with Fiona Hill, then the top White House official for Europe. In that role Hill frequently participated directly in Trump’s meetings and phone calls with foreign leaders, and Kent said that Hill described to him what had occurred in both the Putin call and the Orban meeting.
“Fiona assessed the conversations as being similar in tone and approach. And both leaders, both Putin and Orban, extensively talked Ukraine down, said it was corrupt, said Zelenskiy was in the thrall of oligarchs,” Kent said. “Specifically mentioning this one oligarch Kolomoisky, negatively shaping a picture of Ukraine and even President Zelenskiy himself.”
Ihor Kolomoisky, a major Ukrainian businessman, has close ties to Zelenskiy pre-dating his presidency that have been frequently cited by Zelenskiy’s critics. Hill, through her attorney, had no immediate comment. But in her own deposition before the House, Hill described how normal White House channels on Ukraine were circumvented by others in and out of the U.S. government who ran a “shadow” foreign policy on Ukraine.
Kent’s testimony provides the first public confirmation by a senior diplomat that Orban and Putin pushed a damaging image of Ukraine to Trump, although officials previously described such a scenario to
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