While giving testimony for the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, Fiona Hill, who previously worked in the Trump administration as a Russia expert, related that during her tenure in the administration, she received harassment and death threats over the conspiracy theory she was a “mole” planted by financier and philanthropist George Soros. The smear can be traced back to comments made in May 2017 by Trump confidant Roger Stone, who is currently standing trial on seven felony counts as a result of the special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in 2016 presidential elections. (Update: Stone was found guilty on all seven counts against him on November 15 and currently awaits sentencing.)

Hill, who joined the Trump administration in spring 2017 and left in August 2019, referenced the harassment and threats she faced while discussing a smear campaign Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani orchestrated against former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

In her testimony, which was released on November 8, Hill related, “My entire first year of my tenure at the National Security Council was filled with hateful calls, conspiracy theories, which has started again, frankly, as it's been announced that I've been giving this deposition, accusing me of being a Soros mole in the White House, of colluding with all kinds of enemies of the President, and, you know, of various improprieties.” Hill added that former NSC head H.R. McMaster “and many other members of staff were targeted as well, and many people were hounded out of the National Security Council because they became frightened about their own security.” Hill related receiving death threats and said she got harassing phone calls at home, stating, “My neighbors reported somebody coming and hammering on my door.”

Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and Stone purported to reveal Hill as a “Soros mole” during the May 31, 2017, broadcast of The Alex Jones Show.

Hill mentioned in her testimony that since it was announced on October 11 that she was going to testify, the harassment has picked back up. On October 12, a video-sharing platform used by Jones’ Infowars outlet posted a “Bombshell Flashback” claiming, “Roger Stone and Alex Jones expose a major Soros operative within the Trump White House. Fiona Hill.” The video included footage from Jones’ May 31, 2017, show.

During the May 2017 broadcast, Jones teased that Stone “has exclusive inside intel that he’s breaking right now” and that he would reveal “a major Soros mole discovered in the White House.” Stone then said that, “George Soros has penetrated the Trump White House. Soros has planted a mole infiltrating the national security apparatus, a woman named Fiona Hill,” before he and Jones disparaged her work in the Trump administration.