House Intel chair Adam Schiff delivered a sweeping opening statement to kick off the first public impeachment hearing, laying out the key events in the inquiry while also addressing what are sure to be the key counterarguments from Republicans
that he was uneasy with attempts by Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, to influence Ukraine policy and smear the now-ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.New revelations from William Taylorcontained some startling new information he said he’d learned just last Friday from a member of his staff.
Rep. Jim Jordan, a strident ally of the president and long a congressional attack dog for Trump, quickly made a splash in Wednesday’s hearing after being subbed in on the committee. Taylor in particular spent significant time describing how crucial it is for Washington to keep sending military aid to Ukraine, saying the European country is “on the front line” of the global competition between America and Russia. Schiff began his opening statement by talking about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
But it became clear that when it came to Ukraine, it wasn’t just about business, Taylor added. Trump, who apparently suspects Ukraine tried to undermine him in the 2016 election, “had a feeling of having been wronged by the Ukrainians.” Taylor said Bolton later told Fiona Hill, a former National Security Council official, that he “didn't want to be associated with this drug deal. So it was — the implication was it was the domestic politics that was being cooked up.”Kent described in his opening statement his communications regarding Burisma, the controversial Ukrainian energy firm whose board employed Hunter Biden.
In fact, Kent said he and other U.S. officials “consistently advocated reinstituting” the Burisma probe, “as well as holding the corrupt prosecutors who closed the case to account.”before lawmakers, Kent swatted at Rudy Giuliani, describing for the first time in a public forum the efforts by Trump’s personal attorney and his associates “to run a campaign to smear” high-level diplomats in Kiev.
“Masha, Alex, and Fiona were born abroad before their families or they themselves personally chose to immigrate to the United States,” Kent said. “They all made the professional choice to serve the United States as public officials, helping shape our national security policy, towards Russia in particular. And we and our national security are the better for it.
Schiff’s narrative opening remarks were similar to those he made at the beginning of the first hearings about Russian election interference in 2017. Schiff also sought to shoot down Republican assertions that the conduct of the president was, in fact, impeachable, swiping at the White House’s attempts to stonewall the investigation and Republicans’ refusal to condemn it.
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