No evidence Ukraine meddled in 2016 election: State Dept. official

State Department official David Hale told Democratic Senator Bob Menendez during a hearing on future U.S. policy towards Russia that Kremlin meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election was not a "hoax." Hale could not substantiate a claim made by Trump that Ukraine interfered in the 2016 election.

Lawmakers and the public have heard testimony from current and former officials that military aid was withheld from Ukraine and that a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was conditioned on Kiev probing Biden and his son Hunter as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukraine interference in the 2016 U.S. election.

U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs David Hale, the No.

3 State Department official, told a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Tuesday that he had seen no evidence that Ukraine - not Russia - interfered in the 2016 elections, undermining an argument used by Trump and some of his supporters.

An investigation by the Republican-controlled Senate Intelligence Committee also could not substantiate allegations of Ukraine's interference, two congressional sources said on condition of anonymity.