An Indian-American White House Official has been enmeshed in the controversy over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine that is the focus of the impeachment hearings against him.
House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Thursday named Kashyap Patel as a source providing information on Ukraine matters directly to Mr. Trump, bypassing the National Security Council (NSC) staffers in charge of the country’s matters. Mr. Patel is the Senior Director of counterterrorism in the NSC.
During the testimony by Fiona Hill, the former NSC Senior Director dealing with Ukraine, Mr. Schiff said, “The indication is that Kash Patel provided some information directly to the President without your knowledge.”
“That seems to be the indication,” she replied.
To reinforce the Democratic line that there was an unofficial parallel foreign policy setup dealing with Ukraine, Mr. Schiff said that Mr. Trump thought an individual was the Director of Ukraine in the NSC and asked her who it was. Ms. Hill said that the person was referred to only as “Kash” and “I had to search my mind. The only Kash I knew at the National Security Agency was Kash Patel.”
Mr. Schiff asked her if he worked on Ukraine and reported to her, to which she replied that Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified earlier, was the Director for Ukraine and she did not oversee Mr. Patel.
In secret hearings last month Mr. Vindman had told the panel investigating Mr. Trump that Mr. Patel had misrepresented his expertise on Ukraine to the President.
Mr. Patel had worked for the Intelligence Committee, when it was controlled by the Republicans and David Nunes was its chair.
