Logo

Logo

Trump impeachment probe: Public hearings to begin ‘next week’

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify on November 15, Schiff further said.

Trump impeachment probe: Public hearings to begin ‘next week’

US President Donald Trump (Photo: IANS)

US Democrats announced on Wednesday that they will launch public impeachment hearings next week.

Taking to Twitter, House Intelligence Committee Chairman, Adam Schiff tweeted that they will hear from William Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, an expert on Ukraine and Russia who serves as a deputy assistant secretary at the State Department, on November 13.

Former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify on November 15, Schiff further said.

The announcement comes after several weeks of closed-door depositions by former and current Trump administration officials with the US House panels leading the impeachment inquiry and amid escalating partisan battles.

Schiff said while talking to media at Capitol Hill, “Those open hearings will be an opportunity for the American people to evaluate the witnesses for themselves, to make their own determinations about the credibility of the witnesses.”

The Trump administration has 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.

The testimony from Taylor further connected Trump, Giuliani and the administration to a quid-pro-quo agreement that came to light after a government whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskiy

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.

Advertisement