UPDATE 3-Democrats say Trump administration used misinformation to attack U.S. diplomat

Democrats on Wednesday accused the Trump administration of using "propaganda and misinformation" to attack the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and demanded that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo explain how the material circulated at top levels of his department. The Democrats, who are pursuing an impeachment probe of President Donald Trump, leveled the charge after State Department Inspector General Steve Linick delivered a package of documents to a meeting he called with eight congressional committees.

"We are now in possession of this packet of propaganda and disinformation," said Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin, the only lawmaker who joined committee staff members at the meeting. "The real question is where did it come from and how did it end up in our lap?" Photographs of some of the documents, which were reviewed by Reuters, promoted unsubstantiated conspiracy theories about Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. envoy to Ukraine, who was removed from her post in May, several months before she was due to leave, after Trump allies accused her of disloyalty.

A meeting participant, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the materials arrived at the State Department this spring and that Linick passed them on to the FBI. The materials were inside an envelope marked "White House" that contained folders labeled "Trump Hotel," said a statement issued by the Democratic chairmen of the House intelligence, oversight and foreign relations committees.

The documents "reinforce concern that the president and his allies sought to use the machinery of the State Department to further the president's personal political interests," they said. The meeting with Linick came as the Democratic-led U.S. House of Representatives looks at whether Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rival, Democrat Joe Biden, the former vice president, and his son, Hunter, who was a director of a Ukrainian energy firm.

Following a whistleblower complaint released last week, Democrats launched the impeach inquiry focusing on a July 25 call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Biden, a leading Democrat seeking to run against the Republican Trump in 2020, and his son. Pompeo said on Wednesday during a visit to Rome that he had listened in on Trump's call with Zelenskiy.

The photographs of documents delivered by Linick to Congress included what appeared to be a cover sheet addressed to Pompeo on White House stationary. One document, whose source was not disclosed, described a discredited theory promoted by Trump allies that Yovanovitch was installed in her post by billionaire George Soros, a Democratic donor frequently attacked by far-right activists.

"Until she is removed Soros has as much, or more, power over Yovanovitch as the President and the Secretary of State," said the document. Also in the packet was an email from John Solomon, a pro-Trump columnist for The Hill newspaper, to pro-Trump lawyers Victoria Toensing and Joe DiGenova, and Lev Parnas, a Soviet-born businessman who has been aiding Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani.

The email contained a report by Solomon that the U.S. embassy in Kiev pressed Ukrainian authorities to end an investigation into an anti-corruption group supported by Soros during the 2016 U.S. election. The report also quoted a former Ukrainian prosecutor as saying Yovanovitch had given him a list of people, including Soros allies, who should not be prosecuted. The State Department has vehemently denied such a list existed.

Giuliani, who has called Parnas one of his clients, has been a leading promoter of the unsubstantiated allegation that Biden, while vice president, pressured Ukraine to fire a prosecutor investigating the company in which his son was a director. The prosecutor has said the probe pre-dated Hunter Biden's role in the company. The White House, the State Department, Solomon, Toensing and DiGenova did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Bob Menendez, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said the materials provided by Linick appeared "to contain long-debunked theories and false statements about the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and one of President Trump's political opponents." "These documents provide further evidence of a concerted, external effort to conduct a disinformation campaign against a career U.S ambassador, who has been the subject of baseless attacks, including by the President himself," Menendez said.

He demanded an explanation of Pompeo's role as it appeared that he had discussed the materials with a top aide and the documents were "distributed at the highest levels of the State Department." Before the meeting, congressional sources told Reuters the session with Linick would focus on potential political retaliation against career State Department diplomats by the department's leadership.

The meeting was attended by staffers from the House and Senate committees on intelligence, foreign affairs, government oversight and appropriations, congressional aides said. The House intelligence committee is leading the impeachment inquiry.

Also Read: US News Roundup: Democrats announce tighter criteria for fifth presidential debate; Florida police officer suspended for arresting two six-year-olds