Key revelation today: The "fictional narrative" that it was Ukraine and not Russia that interfered in our 2016 election "has been perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves." [THREAD]
Immediately after making that unambiguous attribution in her prepared remarks today, former senior official Fiona Hill noted that "some of the underlying details [of the intel assessment that Russia was the foreign power that attacked us in 2016] must remain classified."
Not all of this is new. We learned from FBI interviews released earlier this month that Manafort was pushing this baseless conspiracy theory starting in 2016, and that it "parroted a narrative" supported by former GRU officer Konstantin Kilimnik. 
It was also publicly promoted by Vladimir Putin in early 2017. Earlier this week, Lt. Col Alexander Vindman confirmed that "I am well aware of that fact."
Also in early 2017, Ken Vogel co-authored a Politico story still touted by House Republicans suggesting DNC involvement in supposed Ukrainian meddling, a story informed by a former Ukrainian embassy staffer who now works for Ukrainians aligned with Russia. buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanha…
Trump said Putin told him Russia didn't meddle & "I'd rather have him - you know, work with him on the Ukraine than standing and arguing about whether or not - because that whole thing was set up by the Democrats.” Did Putin also tell Trump it was Ukraine?
In the past, arguably the single top case of disinfo planted by Russia and picked up in America was about Seth Rich. This Ukraine-2016 narrative "perpetrated and propagated by the Russian security services themselves" appears to blow that away, exceeding past Russian info ops.
UPDATE: In recent weeks, American intelligence officials have briefed senators that "Russia had engaged in a yearslong campaign to essentially frame Ukraine as responsible for Moscow’s own hacking of the 2016 election." nytimes.com/2019/11/22/us/…
This bombshell news drops just five hours after President Trump was on Fox & Friends promoting the same conspiracy theory that Russia has so actively propagated.
Two details are particularly interesting. First, starting in 2017, Russian intel worked thru intermediaries to pass content to journalists. Is this a reference to the Ken Vogel story sourced to a Ukrainian who works for Ukrainians aligned with Russia?
Second, Deripaska was involved too, seemingly through Konstantin Kilimnik, as revealed in the Rick Gates 302 and also noted above.
Going into 2020, U.S. law enforcement and national security policy should prioritize informing the public about and deterring these ongoing active measures, rather than DOJ issuing reports to cast doubt upon the 2016 investigations and Treasury going soft on Russia sanctions.
I missed this buried lede: Trump "has also spoken with Mr. Putin about allegations of Ukrainian interference," apparently making the President of the United States a useful idiot in a Russian intel covert operation (as @anneapplebaum speculated 2 mo. ago).
