Key witnesses appear at third public hearing
Four more witnesses were set to appear yesterday in the third public hearing of the House of Representatives impeachment inquiry against President Donald Trump including two - Alexander Vindman and Kurt Volker - who previously have offered contrasting testimony behind closed doors.
Vindman, an Army lieutenant colonel and the White House National Security Council’s top Ukraine expert, and Volker, the former US special envoy to Ukraine, are scheduled to testify before the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee in the impeachment probe focusing on Trump’s dealings with Ukraine.
Testifying alongside Vindman in a morning session is Jennifer Williams, an aide to Vice President Mike Pence. Testifying alongside Volker in an afternoon session is former National Security Council Russia expert Tim Morrison.
The inquiry focuses on a July 25 phone call in which Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to carry out two investigations that would benefit him politically including one targeting Democratic political rival Joe Biden. The other involved a debunked conspiracy theory embraced by some Trump allies that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 US election.
In her prepared statement to the committee, Williams said Trump’s July 25 call was “unusual” because it “it involved discussion of what appeared to be a domestic political matter.” Williams said the White House Budget office had said Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, had directed that $391 million in security aid to Ukraine be put on hold and that she never learned why the assistance was later released in September.
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