Public hearings in Trump impeachment probe start next week
WASHINGTON, United States — The first open impeachment hearings into US President Donald Trump will begin next week, the congressman leading the probe said Wednesday, as the investigation heads into a highly
William Taylor, Washington's top diplomat to Ukraine, and deputy assistant secretary of state
People will
In a closed-door deposition, Taylor bolstered the principal accusation against Trump
Kent, who heads the European and Eurasian bureau at the State Department,
Yovanovitch herself told investigators
Schiff has already begun releasing transcripts of private witness testimony but it
The Capitol Hill hearings will
Republican lawmakers have spent weeks accusing Democrats of holding "sham" secret hearings in the US Capitol basement and demanding a more open process.
Schiff said that moment in the fast-moving inquiry had arrived, and that Americans
The hearings will let the American people "
Quid pro quo
An anonymous whistleblower complaint in September highlighted potential abuse of power by the president when he telephoned Ukraine's leader and asked him to investigate former vice president Joe Biden, Trump's potential 2020 election rival.
The complaint led Democrats to launch their impeachment inquiry, which has led to an avalanche of witness testimony from current and former diplomats or administration officials who have largely corroborated the whistleblower's account.
Trump has attacked the complaint as "phony" and has demanded the whistleblower's identity
Trump loyalists in Congress have been disparaging the impeachment process, as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy sought to do after Schiff's announcement.
"Don't
Next week's marquee appearance may well be by Taylor,
It painted a damning picture of Trump offering a quid pro quo. According to the testimony, his administration conditioned both military aid and a sought-after Ukraine meeting with Trump on Kiev's willingness to launch an investigation of Burisma, a Ukrainian energy firm connected to Biden's son.
Taylor told investigators that it was "my clear understanding, security
"Are you aware that quid pro quo literally means this for that?" an investigator asked, according to the transcript.
"Yes," Taylor replied.
In testimony to investigators revealed last month, he
Taylor said a US diplomat involved in the shadow diplomacy, Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, told him that "everything," including military aid, depended on Ukraine's Biden probe.
While several witnesses have already testified, the White House continues its stonewalling efforts.
Democrats summoned the highest-ranking White House official yet, acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, to testify this week, although he is highly likely to refuse.
Mulvaney publicly stated last month that
Donald Trump, now former US president, has been impeached a second time.
Donald Trump's former chief of staff says he is no longer willing to cooperate with the probe into January's assault on the US Capitol, prompting investigators to threaten him with criminal prosecution.
Mark Meadows, who failed to appear before the congressional panel last month, is seen as a key witness to Trump's role in efforts to overturn the election by undemocratic means.
Having initially snubbed a subpoena to testify before the House of Representatives committee, Meadows later reached an agreement on sharing information with lawmakers — before reversing course again.
"Now actions by the select committee have made such an appearance untenable," Meadows' attorney, George Terwilliger, says in a new letter to the committee circulated among US media. — AFP
The US Senate is expected to deliver a verdict in Donald Trump's impeachment trial this weekend after his lawyers argued that the former president bears no responsibility for an attack by supporters on Congress after he failed to win reelection.
Defense lawyers wrapped up their presentation in just three hours, accusing Democrats of persecuting Trump.
This followed two days of evidence from Democratic impeachment managers, centered around harrowing video footage of the mob assault against the Capitol on January 6. — AFP
The US Senate votes to proceed with the impeachment trial of former president Donald Trump, rejecting defense arguments that it was unconstitutional.
Defense lawyers had argued that Trump should not face a trial in the Senate for inciting insurrection because he was no longer president.
But the Senate voted 56-44 to proceed with the trial, with six Republicans joining Democratic lawmakers. — AFP
The Senate impeachment trial of former US president Donald Trump will "tear this country apart," one of his defense lawyers says Tuesday.
"This trial will tear this country apart," David Schoen says on the opening day of Trump's trial for inciting the January 6 storming of the US Capitol by his supporters.
Schoen says the trial will leave the United States "far more divided and our standing around the world will be badly broken." — AFP
Former US president Donald Trump announced Sunday that he had hired two new lawyers to head his defense team for his historic second impeachment trial.
Trump's announcement came the day after US media reported that several of his impeachment lawyers had left his team, a little more than a week shy of his trial before the US Senate.
Trump said in a statement that "highly respected trial lawyers" David Schoen and Bruce L. Castor, Jr would lead his legal efforts.
Castor has focused on criminal law throughout his career, while Schoen specializes in "civil rights litigation in Alabama and federal criminal defense work, including white collar and other complex cases, in New York."
Trump, who left office January 20, faces trial on a charge that he incited the mob that stormed the US Capitol building in an effort to block his election loss to President Joe Biden. — AFP
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