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Trump impeachment probe: House Democrats announce next round of public hearings

Among the witnesses who will show up next week, Morrison, Volker and Hale were requested by Republicans, who were given the right to call witnesses by a resolution passed in the Democratic-controlled House in October.

Trump impeachment probe: House Democrats announce next round of public hearings

US President Donald Trump (Photo: IANS)

The US House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff on Tuesday released the schedule for public hearings of eight more witnesses as part of the impeachment enquiry into President Donald Trump over his dealings with Ukraine.

Taking to Twitter, Schiff, a California Democrat, announced that the testimonies of the eight witnesses, all of whom had testified previously behind closed doors on Capitol Hill, will be held over three days next week.

The lawmakers will hear the narration of events from US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland in the early hours of Wednesday and from Laura Cooper, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense, as well as David Hale, the Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, in the afternoon.

Former White House Russia expert Fiona Hill will testify on November 21.

As it has been announced by Schiff, William Taylor, Charge d’Affairs of the US Embassy in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, are scheduled to testify publicly. Former US Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch’s public hearing is slated for Friday.

Among the witnesses who will show up next week, Morrison, Volker and Hale were requested by Republicans, who were given the right to call witnesses by a resolution passed in the Democratic-controlled House in October.

However, the Republican-proposed witnesses, have to be signed off by Democrats, according to the rules set in the resolution.

Earlier in the month, President Trump opposed impeachment enquiry, saying that there should be no public hearings during the House of Representatives’ impeachment enquiry against him, and directed White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney not to appear before the committees investigating Trump’s phone call to Ukraine.

Trump administration had ordered officials not to participate in the House enquiry. But lawmakers have spent weeks hearing from current and former government witnesses, largely from the State Department, as one official after another has relayed his or her understanding of events.

After almost a month of calling for greater transparency in the enquiry, the White House changed its strategy this week by prohibiting several of its officials from even testifying behind closed doors before the lower house committees.

Last month, US former national security advisor was so alarmed by a White House–linked effort to pressure Ukraine to investigate Democrats, he told aide Fiona Hill to alert the National Security Council’s chief lawyer, Hill told House impeachment investigators in her 10-hour deposition.

Late September, the impeachment inquiry, which House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initiated over a complaint by an anonymous whistleblower, is looking into White House’s alleged efforts to withhold military aid to have Ukraine investigate a Trump’s political rival, Joe Biden.

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