- Bill Taylor and George Kent, two of the most significant witnesses against President Donald Trump, are testifying in the first public impeachment hearings on Wednesday.
- Taylor is Trump's chief envoy in Ukraine, and Kent is the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
- Both men vividly detailed Trump's efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into delivering political dirt while holding up military aid and a White House meeting.
- We'll be covering the hearings live here.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
The House of Representatives launched public hearings Wednesday into whether President Donald Trump should be impeached.
At the center of the impeachment inquiry are Trump's communications with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his repeated efforts to pressure Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son for corruption ahead of the 2020 election.
Trump also asked Zelensky to investigate a bogus conspiracy theory suggesting it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 election and that it did so to benefit Hillary Clinton's campaign.
The first two witnesses testifying this week are Bill Taylor and George Kent. Taylor is Trump's chief envoy in Ukraine, and Kent is the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs.
You can watch the hearing below:
Taylor reveals new information, says his staff was told Trump 'cares more about the investigations of Biden, which Giuliani was pushing for'
//twitter.com/mims/statuses/1194646339142987776?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
This, from William Taylor's prepared remarks, is new: pic.twitter.com/ZM4P2vknV6
Taylor highlights his 'astonishment' at Giuliani's 'alarming' shadow campaign in Ukraine
Taylor discussed his discovery that US policy in Ukraine seemed to consist of two channels, "one regular, and one highly irregular."
The irregular channel, he said, included Giuliani, acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, US ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry, and the US's former Special Representative to Ukraine Kurt Volker.
He recounted his reaction when he found out that the White House meeting and security aid were conditioned on Zelensky delivering Trump the investigations he wanted.
"By mid-July it was becoming clear to me that the meeting President Zelensky wanted was conditioned on the investigations of Burisma and alleged Ukrainian interference in the 2016 US elections. It was also clear that this condition was driven by the irregular policy channel I had come to understand was guided by Mr. Giuliani," Taylor said.
"I and others sat in astonishment," Taylor said. "Ukrainians were fighting Russians and counted on not only the training and weapons, but also the assurance of US support."
He added: "In an instant, I realized that one of the key pillars of our strong support for Ukraine was threatened. The irregular policy channel was running contrary to the goals of long-standing US policy."
Taylor: Former US ambassador Masha Yovanovitch 'has been treated poorly' and was 'caught in a web of political machinations in Kiev and Washington'
Taylor began his opening statement by underscoring that it is in the US's interest to stop Russia's aggression toward Ukraine.
He also directly pointed to facts surrounding Trump's decision to withhold security assistance. He called the freeze "crazy" when he found out about it in September and said he believes the same now.
Taylor also strongly defended Yovanovitch and her record. He said Yovanovitch "has been treated poorly" as the result of being "caught in a web of political machinations in Kiev and Washington."
Kent slammed Rudy Giuliani for working with 'corrupt Ukrainians' and 'infecting' US policy in Ukraine
Kent opened by emphasizing his long record as a nonpartisan foreign service officer who served under both Republican and Democratic administrations.
He went on to say it was "unfortunate" to watch Americans, including those allied with "corrupt" interests in Ukraine, "launch attacks on public servants advancing US interests in Ukraine."
This was a reference to Trump's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, who is accused of carrying out a smear campaign to engineer the removal of Marie Yovanovitch, the US's ambassador to Ukraine who was abruptly removed from her position in Ukraine.
Kent and others have testified that Yovanovitch was recalled based on false allegations and conspiracy theories pushed by Giuliani, who was furious Yovanovitch would not help him pressure Ukraine for dirt on the Bidens.
"In mid-August, it became clear to me that Giuliani's efforts to gin up politically motivated investigations were now infecting US engagement with Ukraine, leveraging President Zelensky's desire for a White House meeting," Kent said.
He added: The US should not "push other countries to engage in selective politically motivated prosecutions against opponents of those in power, because that undermines the rule of law."
GOP Rep. Devin Nunes: 'This is a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign'
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member on the committee, set the tone for the GOP by immediately calling Democrats corrupt and accusing the media of carrying out a "carefully orchestrated smear campaign" against the president.
Nunes said the investigation is a "horrifically one-sided process," and that Democrats conducted secret depositions. He did not mention that Republicans on the committees conducting the inquiry were allowed to attend.
He also lobbed attacks on the whistleblower whose complaint sparked the impeachment investigation. That individual, Nunes said, "is alleged to have had a bias against President Trump."
He was referring to the intelligence community inspector general's finding that the whistleblower is a registered Democrat.
Nunes did not touch on the fact that the majority of the whistleblower's complaint about Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukraine's president has been corroborated by a White House summary of call, Trump's own public statements, statements made by the acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, and a cascade of witness testimony.
"This spectacle is doing great damage to our country," Nunes said of the impeachment inquiry. "It is nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime."
Adam Schiff: 'The facts in the present inquiry are not seriously contested'
Rep. Adam Schiff, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and the Democrat leading the impeachment inquiry, made a lengthy opening statement laying out the timeline of Trump's pressure campaign in Ukraine.
The goal of the investigation, Schiff said, is to determine whether Trump "sought to exploit" Ukraine's vulnerability and "sought to condition official acts," like military aid and a White House meeting, on Ukraine giving him political dirt on the Bidens.
If Trump did either, Schiff added, Congress needs to investigate "whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the office of the presidency."
"The matter is as simple and as terrible as that," Schiff said. "Our answers to these questions will affect not only the future of this presidency, but the future of the presidency itself."
The California Democrat also suggested that Trump's order for witnesses not to cooperate with the inquiry constitutes additional grounds for impeachment related to obstructing Congress.
What Taylor and Kent testified to behind closed doors
Taylor and Kent are expected to vividly detail Trump's efforts to strong-arm Ukraine into delivering political dirt while holding up vital military aid and a White House meeting.
Taylor and Kent will also attest to the shadow foreign policy campaign that Giuliani, Sondland, Volker, and others spearheaded.
Kent has testified that Giuliani's efforts on Trump's behalf were not part of US foreign policy but instead a personal mission to get the president the dirt he wanted on Biden.
Taylor, meanwhile, directly confirmed a quid pro quo and said he learned that Sondland conveyed to a top Ukrainian official that Zelensky would not get the military aid or a White House meeting until he announced the politically motivated investigations that Trump demanded.
What's happened in the impeachment inquiry so far
Several government officials, including Taylor and Kent, have already testified to Congress behind closed doors, and their revelations paint a damaging portrait of a concerted effort across the administration to leverage US foreign policy to pressure Ukraine into acceding to Trump's demands.
They also outlined the lengths White House officials went to in order to conceal records of a July 25 phone call between Trump and Zelensky.
Witnesses have testified that Trump's allies — particularly Giuliani, Sondland, Volker, Mulvaney, and Perry — were part of an effort to condition security assistance to Ukraine and a White House meeting on Zelensky publicly announcing the investigations Trump wanted.
The president's defenders say he did nothing wrong and that this is a normal part of how diplomacy and foreign policy are conducted.
But national security veterans, legal scholars, and at times Trump's own officials who have testified have suggested his actions open him up to a variety of potential charges including abuse of power, bribery, extortion, misappropriation of taxpayer funds, and soliciting foreign interference in the upcoming election.
- Read more of Insider's impeachment coverage:
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- Trump could be impeached, removed from office, and still win re-election in 2020
- Over half of the House of Representatives support the impeachment inquiry against Trump — see all of them here
- Everything you need to know about Trump's impeachment process: what's happened, who the players are, and what comes next