Jim Mattis emailed Fiona Hill saying he was 'enormously proud' of her work after she testified in Trump's impeachment hearing

• Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis previously emailed Fiona Hill, a Russia expert on the National Security Council, telling her that she "demonstrated courage and poise" when she testified during the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment hearing on President Donald Trump.
• "I doubt that I've ever felt the combination of pride, anger and contempt as I watched you testify and what followed," he said in the email, which first appeared in The New Yorker.
• During her testimony, Hill lambasted lawmakers who questioned the preponderance of evidence that shows the Kremlin sanctioned a campaign to interfere in US elections.

Former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis previously emailed Fiona Hill, the former director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council, telling her that she "demonstrated courage and poise" when she testified during the House Intelligence Committee's impeachment hearing on President Donald Trump in November.

Mattis, who had already resigned from his position in the Defense Department, sent an email to Hill on March 1, over four months after her high profile testimony on Capitol Hill, according to The New Yorker. Hill painted a damaging portrait of top administration officials who were trying to strong-arm Ukraine into investigating the Bidens, and emerged as a credible and charismatic witness.

"I've wanted to drop you a note paying my respects but hesitated in the immediate aftermath of your testimony to ask around for your email address," Mattis said in the email, according to The New Yorker. "Had word leaked out that I wanted to be in touch I imagined it could/would have been misconstrued and add to the challenges you were dealing with."

"I doubt that I've ever felt the combination of pride, anger and contempt as I watched you testify and what followed," he added. "I was enormously proud of your demonstrated courage and poise as you stood tall; angry at those who chose to try to defame you (they failed); and contemptuous of what we witnessed in those weeks by supposed political leaders whose hear no evil, see no evil stance revealed profiles in non-courage."

Mattis has long been silent on critiquing the Trump administration and criticized other US officials who "get out and start talking" about a sitting president. He resigned in December 2018, citing differences of views, shortly after Trump announced he would all US troops out of Syria.

Mattis's views on the matter became public when he issued a statement published in The Atlantic on June 3, where he gave his harshest review of the Trump administration for its response to the protests surrounding the death of George Floyd.

"I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled," Mattis said in his statement.

"Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people — does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us," he added. "We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

Hill, in addition to other US experts and diplomats on European affairs, testified as witnesses during the impeachment inquiry into the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine.

During her testimony, Hill lambasted lawmakers who questioned the preponderance of evidence that shows the Kremlin sanctioned a campaign to interfere in US elections, and scrutinized the "fictional narrative" that suggested Ukraine, a US ally, had done something similar.

"In the course of this investigation, I would ask that you please not promote politically driven falsehoods that so clearly advance Russian interests," Hill said at the time.

"I refuse to be part of an effort to legitimize an alternate narrative that the Ukrainian government is a US adversary and that Ukraine — not Russia — attacked us in 2016," Hill added. "These fictions are harmful even if they are deployed for purely domestic political purposes."

Hill also shed light to the White House's agenda, led by Gordon Sondland — a Trump-appointee and US ambassador to the European Union — which circumvented the NSC's mission and led to disputes.