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Public Impeachment Hearings Targeting Trump to Start Next Week

Ken Bredemeier

   WASHINGTON - Public impeachment hearings targeting U.S. President
   Donald Trump and his efforts to push Ukraine to investigate one of his
   chief 2020 Democratic challengers will start next week, House
   Intelligence Committee chairman Adam Schiff said Wednesday.

   After weeks of closed-door hearings, Schiff said Americans would get a
   chance "to judge the case" against Trump.

   "Most of the facts are not contested," Schiff said. He contended that
   the central allegation centers on Trump "trying to get Ukraine to dig
   up dirt on a political opponent," former Vice President Joe Biden, the
   leader among a host of Democrats trying to win the party's presidential
   nomination to face Trump in the 2020 election.

   Schiff said the intelligence panel will hear from Bill Taylor, the top
   U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State
   George Kent when public hearings start next Wednesday.

   In closed-door testimony to impeachment investigators, Taylor said he
   was told the White House would only free $391 million in U.S. military
   aid to Ukraine if it publicly promised to investigate his political
   rivals. Schiff said a full transcript of Taylor's testimony would be
   released later in the day.

   Schiff said the committee would hear Nov. 15 from former Ambassador to
   Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. She has said she was told by a Trump
   administration official that she should tweet out support for Trump if
   she wanted to save her job, according to a transcript of her
   closed-door testimony to lawmakers made public Monday.

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