House Democrats to begin public impeachment hearings next week
House Democrats are opening the public phase of their impeachment inquiry of Donald Trump next week with some of the central witnesses who have detailed the president's pressure on Ukraine to investigate a political rival.
The public hearings will begin Nov. 13 with William Taylor, the current top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, who described the conditions that Trump and his associates set for Ukraine's new president to receive military aid and a coveted White House meeting.
The Intelligence Committee, which will lead the public hearings, will call the State Department's George Kent on the same day. Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify Nov. 15.
Testimony directly from career public servants raises the political risk for the Trump as he seeks to de-legitimize the impeachment process while preserving his re-election prospects in 2020. But there is also risk for Democrats who are trying to build public support for impeachment and protect moderate members who will be campaigning in Trump-friendly districts next year.
House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff said next week's testimonies will show how "the most important facts are largely not contested."
"We are getting increasing appreciation for just what took place during the course of the last year and the degree to which the president enlisted whole departments of the government in the illicit aim of trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent," Schiff told reporters Wednesday.
Schiff also said his panel plans to release the transcript of Taylor's private Oct. 22 testimony on Wednesday.
That deposition was described as a "smoking gun" by Democrats on the committees, since it included details about the pressure put on Ukraine through a back-channel effort led by Rudy Giuliani and other Trump administration officials.
Crucially, Taylor described a conversation in which U.S Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland told Andriy Yermak, an adviser to Ukraine's president, that military and security aid to Ukraine would be withheld until Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy committed to pursuing an investigation of Burisma, an energy company where Hunter Biden had previously served on the board.
Sondland on Monday revised his earlier testimony to the House committees in which he said he didn't remember many of the events. In the revision, Sondland said his memory had been "refreshed" and that he did recall telling Yermak about the link between the aid and the investigation sought by the White House.
Kent provided details on how Sondland, special envoy Kurt Volker and Energy Secretary Rick Perry were instructed to work with Giuliani on Ukraine issues outside normal diplomatic channels.
The statements provide the first direct testimony that a quid pro quo was communicated to Ukrainian officials, undermining Trump's main defense against the impeachment inquiry.
Yovanovitch, who was recalled from her Ukraine post in May, previously testified that she was warned by Ukrainian officials in February that Giuliani was mounting a campaign to oust her.
She also said she subsequently felt threatened by the way Trump spoke about her on a July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy. In that call, documented by a White House memo later made public, Trump called Yovanovitch "bad news" and said "she's going to go through some things."