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The impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump is moving full steam ahead as House Democrats continue to hold public hearings with several key witnesses in the Ukraine controversy.
On Tuesday, House Intelligence Committee investigators will hear from four officials in two sessions. Alexander Vindman and Jennifer Williams will testify side by side in the morning, followed by Kurt Volker and Tim Morrison in the afternoon.
The back-to-back hearings, which begin at 9 a.m. Eastern time, will be broadcast on C-SPAN and will likely be carried by most major cable news outlets. You can also follow the events via the live stream below, courtesy of C-SPAN.
Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry following reports that he tried to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Trump temporarily withheld nearly $400 million in military assistance to Ukraine to get the country to follow through with his request, according to multiple reports.
One of Tuesday's witnesses, Lieutenant Colonel Vindman, directly listened to the infamous July 25 phone call between the two leaders. Vindman, the National Security Council's top Ukraine expert, previously told lawmakers in a closed-door meeting that he was so alarmed by the conversation that he reported it to the NSC's top lawyer.
"I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government's support of Ukraine," Vindman said, according to a transcript of his earlier deposition. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see where the gain would be for the president in investigating the son of a political opponent."
Testifying next to Vindman will be Williams, Vice President Mike Pence's special adviser on Europe and Russia. She was also on the July 25 phone call. She was the first person from Pence's office to testify in the probe into whether Trump withheld military aid from Ukraine to pressure the country into investigations of Biden, a potential political opponent, and the 2016 election.
Earlier this month, Williams told House investigators during her closed-door deposition that "the mention of those specific investigations" during the July 25 phone call "seemed unusual, as compared to other discussions with foreign leaders."
Starting at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on Tuesday, the panel will hear from Kurt Volker, the former special envoy to Ukraine, and Tim Morrison, senior director for Europe and Russia at the NSC. Republicans requested to hear from Volker and Morrison to compare their testimony to Vindman's.
Volker largely defended Trump in his closed-door meeting with lawmakers. Asked if the president had asked Ukraine to find dirt on the Bidens, Volker said no. The former special envoy also outlined how Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani was involved in the president's dealings with Ukraine.
In his deposition, Morrison also told lawmakers that he did not find the call between Trump and Zelenskiy inappropriate or illegal. But he did corroborate some other details that are at the center of the impeachment inquiry.
Tuesday's hearings follow last week's testimonies from three current or former White House officials before the House Intelligence Committee. Bill Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a top State Department official, testified side by side last Wednesday. Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch delivered her testimony on Friday.
About the writer
Alexandra Hutzler is currently a staff writer on Newsweek's politics team. Prior to joining Newsweek in summer 2018, she was ... Read more