The Hill Editor Announces Review, Potential Correction of John Solomon Articles

The editor-in-chief of The Hill announced that the news website is reviewing John Solomon’s writing in light of allegations made in impeachment hearings that he facilitated a smear campaign against Marie Yovanovitch.

CNN’s Oliver Darcy obtained an internal email from Bob Cusack informing Hill staff that they are “reviewing, updating, annotating, and when appropriate, correcting” Solomon’s columns that have become relevant to the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.

The Hill Editor-In-Chief Bob Cusack just sent this email out to staff announcing that the outlet is reviewing, updating, annotating, and when appropriate correcting columns by John Solomon. pic.twitter.com/V5bKZZ6x3d

— Oliver Darcy (@oliverdarcy) November 18, 2019

“We reiterate that we do not condone sending material out before publication,” Cusack wrote, likely a reference to the revelation that Solomon sent his columns to Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani and his associates before they were published.

When Yovanovitch testified before Congress last week, the former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine described how the president’s allies — including Giuliani — tried to undermine her with false information. Part of the hearing ended up focusing on Solomon, a Fox News contributor who used to write for The Hill. His writing on the Russia probe and Ukraine was marked “opinion” by the D.C. outler, and was featured prominently on Fox News opinion programs like Hannity.

Months ago, Solomon reported that Yovanovitch spoke negatively about Trump, and that she gave Ukrainian prosecutor Yuriy Lutsenko a “do-not-prosecute list.” Yovanovitch and the State Department have pushed back on both claims, Lutsenko changed his story and he told The New York Times there was no such list, and Lutsenko is currently facing abuse of power allegations.

Solomon has amplified a number of conspiracy theories involving Ukraine, and last week, he defended his work by telling Politico “I stand by each and every one of the columns that I wrote and that The Hill (both editors and lawyers) carefully vetted. All facts in those stories are substantiated to original source documents and statements.”

UPDATE – Solomon says he welcomes The Hill’s review.

I welcome The Hill’s review of my Ukraine columns and suggested it myself a month ago. I believe it won’t be hard for The Hill to review these since all my source documents and original interviews are linked for all to see. Plus witnesses have affirmed much of what I wrote.

— John Solomon (@jsolomonReports) November 18, 2019