Getty George Kent, left, and Bill Taylor.
The House Intelligence Committee will be holding the first public and open hearing of the President Donald Trump impeachment inquiry on Wednesday, November 13, 2019. The hearing is set to begin at 10 a.m. Eastern and it will be streamed live on YouTube by the committee. The video can be watched below.
Intelligence Committee members from both the majority Democratic party and the minority Republican party will be questioning two career State Department diplomats, Bill Taylor, the current ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs. Both men have previously been questioned by the committee during a closed-door impeachment deposition. A redacted transcript of Taylor’s previous testimony can be found here and a redacted transcript from Kent’s deposition is available here.
According to the Intelligence Committee, “Ambassador Bill Taylor served as the chargé d’affaires for Ukraine. His testimony confirms the insidiousness of Trump’s months-long pressure campaign at the expense of U.S. security and foreign policy interests.”
The committee said, “the testimony of Ambassador Taylor—a West Point graduate, Vietnam veteran, and nonpartisan diplomat—shows how President Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine and conditioned its release, as well as a vital White House meeting, on the President of Ukraine publicly announcing investigations into debunked conspiracy theories involving the Biden family and the 2016 election.
Kent, “testified that, after a May 23, 2019 Oval Office meeting with President Trump, Secretary Perry, Sondland, and Volker ‘assert[ed] that, going forward, they would be the drivers of the relationship with Ukraine.’ He added that the direction of U.S. policy towards Ukraine had shifted into ‘unusual channels’ and that it was ‘somewhat unusual’ to have the Secretary of Energy and the Ambassador to the EU engaged deeply in the policy of a country that is not an EU member state.”
Watch the Impeachment Inquiry Hearing Live:
A live stream of the hearing can be watched above courtesy of the House Intelligence Committee. The live video is set to begin at 10 a.m. Eastern.
What Will Happen at the Hearing?
Rep. Adam Schiff, left, and Rep. Devin Nunes.
The hearing will be run by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California. Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking Republican on the committee, will also play a key role. Both men will be able to give opening statements and they will each have 45 minutes to either question the witnesses themselves or have staff attorneys do the questioning for them.
Each member of the Intelligence Committee, from both parties, will then be given time to question the witnesses.
More Public Hearings Have Been Scheduled for Friday & Next Week
Getty Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is surrounded by lawyers, aides and journalists as she arrives at the U.S. Capitol October 11, 2019 in Washington, DC.
Another public hearing will be held by the House Intelligence Committee on Friday at 10 a.m. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will be testifying. She also previously gave a closed-door deposition. Yovanovitch testified that she was pushed out of her ambassadorship, “based on a smear campaign orchestrated by the President’s allies. The smear campaign against Ambassador Yovanovitch was based on public falsehoods. The president’s allies sought to tarnish her reputation, character, and her work to clear the deck to advance Trump’s scheme. Ambassador Yovanovitch said she felt threatened by Trump’s words and attempts to remove her, and expressed concern for her safety and career.”
The Intelligence Committee will also be holding hearings next week. On Tuesday, November 12, the witnesses will be Jennifer Williams, Alexander Vindman, Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison. On Wednesday, November 13, Gordon Sondland, Laura Cooper and David Hale will be testifying. And on Thursday, November 14, Fiona Hill will testify.
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