Fiona Hill, who was only the top White House adviser on Russia, testified before a packed impeachment crowd today that Trump’s ‘conspiracy theory’ that it was Ukraine and not Russia that meddled in the last election was a ‘fictional narrative.’ Trump had floated the Ukraine theory to ‘prove’ that he didn’t win the 2016 election with Russian interference.

In a terse warning to the House Intelligence Committee, she said:

‘These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes.’

She later added:

We cannot combat these external forces as they seek to divide us against each other, degrade our institutions, and destroy the faith of the American people in our democracy.’

“The unfortunate truth is that Russia was the foreign power that systematically attacked our democratic institutions,” Hill said. “It is beyond dispute.”

And she warned about it happening again, that Russian President Vladimir Putin would act ‘like a super PAC to influence American elections as the 2020 presidential contest approaches. ‘