House Democrats have announced they'll hold the first public hearings next week in their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
Three State Department officials will testify in hearings Nov. 13 and Nov. 15, according to House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. Schiff is leading the probe.
Schiff tweeted that top Ukraine diplomat William Taylor, career department official George Kent and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will testify. Yovanovitch was ousted in May at Trump's direction.
All three have previously testified behind closed doors. The Democrats are investigating Trump's dealings with Ukraine and his requests for politically motivated investigations as the U.S. withheld military aid from the country.
They will testify next Wednesday and Friday, Schiff said.
Televised public hearings featuring U.S. officials testifying in Congress about alleged wrongdoing by Trump could crowd out other issues like the economy and immigration as voters turn their minds to the November 2020 election.
That might damage Trump, though some of his supporters say the impeachment drive could actually boost his re-election chances by showing him at loggerheads with Washington-based political foes.
Democrats had said they had enough material to move forward with public impeachment hearings, which would be a likely prelude to articles of impeachment - formal charges - against Trump being brought to a vote in the House.
"We are getting an 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 government in the illicit aim of trying to get Ukraine to dig up dirt on a political opponent as well as further a conspiracy theory about the 2016 election that he believed would be beneficial to his re-election campaign," Schiff told reporters.
If the Democratic-controlled House votes to impeach Trump, the Republican-controlled Senate would then hold a trial on whether to remove Trump from office.
Senate Republicans have so far shown little appetite for ousting the president.
Taylor has provided some of the most damaging testimony to date, telling lawmakers on Oct. 22 that Trump made the release of nearly $400 million in security aid to Ukraine contingent on Kiev publicly declaring it would carry out politically motivated investigations demanded by Trump against former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden.
Taylor said he was told by Gordon Sondland, the U.S. envoy to the European Union, that Trump had linked release of the aid to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly declaring that he would investigate Biden, and his son Hunter Biden, as well as a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election.
Joe Biden is a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to run against Trump in the November 2020 election.
Trump has blasted the House inquiry as a witch hunt and accused Democrats of unfairly targeting him in hope of reversing his surprise victory in the 2016 presidential election. In a tweet on Wednesday, Trump called the probe a "phony scam."
Democrats have defended the investigation, citing concerns that the president misused his public office for personal gain.
This report contains material from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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