Democrats Announce Second Week of Public Impeachment Hearings

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While the first public impeachment hearings are currently underway on Capital Hill, Democrats in the House announced a second week of public hearings and who they plan on calling to testify next week.

Among the notable figures being summoned are: E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland, former Ukraine special envoy Kurt Volker, and top Ukraine expert, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman. All three men are central figures in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump with Sondland acknowledging in revised testimony last week that he had delivered a quid pro quo message to Ukraine.

“After that large meeting, I now recall speaking individually with Mr. Yermak, where I said that resumption of U.S. aid would likely not occur until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing for many weeks,” Sondland wrote in the addendum, which was released last week along with a nearly 400-page transcript of his testimony.

Vindman was one of the figures present during the July 25 phone call between Trump and the newly elected president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which the president asked Zelensky to open an investigation into the family of one of his potential 2020 rivals.

Volker is being called as he had multiple dealings with Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal lawyer.

On Tuesday, some of the witnesses being called to testify include: an aide to Vice President Mike Pence, and Tim Morrison, a White House aide with the National Security Council. On Wednesday, the committee is scheduled to hear testimony from the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs, Laura Cooper, as well as from the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, David Hale.

Thursday's hearings will feature Fiona Hill, the former National Security Council senior director for Europe and Russia, who had previously testified that Sondland informed Ukrainian officials that they needed to begin "investigations" in order to receive an invitation to the White House.

Photo: Getty Images


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