US lawmakers grill witnesses at historic first public hearing
WASHINGTON: US lawmakers grilled witnesses at the historic first public hearing of the ongoing impeachment inquiry of US President Donald Trump on Wednesday as he sought to keep pace with tweets and retweets attacking the proceedings.
William Taylor, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state, who were the first witnesses to testify, repeated much of what they had said in closed-door hearings, transcripts of which have since been made available publicly.
Among the few new information that had come up in the first round of questioning by Democrats was a conversation that Trump had with US ambassador to EU, Gordon Sondland, the day after his call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25 - which is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry.
In that conversation, Taylor said a member of his staff overheard the president ask Sondland about the “investigations” that Trump had sought from Ukraine.
The Trump administration is alleged to have pressed Ukraine to investigate political rival and former vice-president Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden and the Democrats in exchange for lifting a block on nearly $400 million in US security aid and a White House meeting for Zelensky.