NBC is responding to Ronan Farrow's new book — which claims that the network quashed his reporting on rape accusations against movie producer Harvey Weinstein to protect Matt Lauer, who faced similar accusations — by dismissing it as a "smear."

This article first appeared in Salon.

In a memo sent to NBC employees on Monday and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, NBC News President Noah Oppenheim argues that Farrow's upcoming book "Catch and Kill" is a "smear" and "rests on the allegation that NBC’s management knew about and took steps to hide Matt Lauer’s misconduct before his firing in November of 2017." It also dismisses the accusation that the network "squashed" Farrow's reporting into the rape accusations against Weinstein in order to protect Lauer as a "conspiracy theory."

Fiona Hill, a former top White House adviser on Russia, revealed to congressional investigators on Monday that President Donald Trump conducted policy toward Ukraine for his personal benefit, according to a new report from the Washington Post.

She reportedly said that the president used his attorney Rudy Giuliani to a “run shadow foreign policy in Ukraine that circumvented U.S. officials and career diplomats in order to personally benefit” himself.