The publication reviewed the former columnist’s work after it came under scrutiny during the impeachment inquiry.
John Solomon, the former opinion writer at The Hill whose columns were seen as a central part of a smear campaign against former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, failed to identify “important details” about his sources — including that they were under investigation or indictment and were even his attorneys, according to a review of his work by his former colleagues.
In its review of 14 columns, The Hill’s news team said serious doubts about the credibility of Solomon’s Ukrainian sources were evident even before his interviews with them. Those include, most notably, two former Ukrainian prosecutors — Yuriy Lutsenko and Victor Shokin — who were the principal sources behind unsupported allegations of corruption by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter.
“In certain columns, Solomon failed to identify important details about key Ukrainian sources, including the fact that they had been indicted or were under investigation. In other cases, the sources were his own attorneys,” The Hill concluded.
The Hill also raised questions — which it says remain unanswered — about Solomon’s relationships with President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associate Lev Parnas, who were central figures driving the suggestion of wrongdoing by the Bidens in Ukraine. Though Solomon has claimed he relied on Parnas as a “facilitator” to connect him with sources in Ukraine, Hill staff said the communications uncovered in the House impeachment investigation pointed to deeper ties.
“The true nature and extent of Parnas’s role in Solomon’s work remain unclear but potentially troubling,” they wrote. “While Solomon has insisted that Parnas was simply facilitating contacts or arranging interviews in his native Ukraine, the number of alleged contacts or apparent references to Solomon in emails, text messages and other materials released by Parnas to congressional investigators raises questions about his involvement.”
The internal review by The Hill of Solomon’s work answers few of the deeper questions about his role in the Ukraine saga. But it underscores the web of contacts that Trump relied on as his eyes and ears in Ukraine, bypassing official State Department channels in order to press the government there to investigate the Bidens, as well as other Democrats based on a debunked conspiracy theory that Ukraine — not Russia — hacked the Democratic Party in 2016.
Solomon’s columns were routinely amplified by Trump and featured on Fox News’ prime-time opinion shows. They also formed a significant part of the rebuttal to the House’s impeachment charges by Trump’s allies in Congress and his legal team.
The network of Trump associates entangled in the Ukraine scandal also includes Joseph DiGenova and Victoria Toensing, husband and wife attorneys and allies of Trump whom Solomon quoted sporadically over the years on matters related to Ukraine. DiGenova and Toensing also represent Dmitry Firtash, a Ukrainian oligarch with Russian ties who is fighting extradition to the United States on conspiracy and bribery charges. The Hill indicated that Solomon, in his columns quoting Toensing, failed to disclose that the pair also represented him.
………..
- Discussion
-
In its review of 14 columns, The Hill's news team said serious doubts about the credibility of John Solomon's Ukrainian sources were evident even before his interviews with them https://t.co/0olSKVruBU
— POLITICO (@politico) February 20, 2020
I remind that Solomon is a career journalist who's worked at top outlets including AP & WaPo. He knew exactly what he was doing here. He intentionally disseminated reams of disinformation about Ukraine to benefit Trump and the Kremlin.https://t.co/CmTgbM5UmT
— John Schindler (@20committee) February 19, 2020
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.