The first public hearings will be held to hear witnesses in an investigation to isolate US President Donald Trump next week with the appearance of diplomats, lawmaker Adam Schiff said Wednesday.
As these hearings begin to air, the investigation moves to form an indictment supporting Trump´s isolation mechanism to a new stage.
Schiff, who heads the House Intelligence Committee, said two witnesses to testify next Wednesday were the US charge d´affaires in Kiev, William Taylor, whose testimony was backed by suspicions that Trump had pressured Kiev to open an investigation that would serve his political goals in the United States and a senior State Department official. Ukraine expert George Kent.
Schiff said the public would be able to see "the extent to which the president employed full bodies in the government with the unlawful aim of trying to force Ukraine to dig out abusive information to a political adversary."
He said the hearings would be "an opportunity for Americans to judge for themselves the witnesses and decide their credibility, and to see firsthand the information about the president´s actions."
The White House denounced a "farce", refusing to cooperate in the investigation and questioning the credibility of witnesses, including many diplomats.
Later on November 15, lawmakers will hear former US ambassador to Kiev Marie Jovanovich, whom Trump criticized during a telephone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelinsky, a call at the heart of the dossier.
Democrats began publishing the minutes of the first closed-door hearings.
In her testimony on October 11, Jovanovic said she felt danger when she saw the contents of the conversation between Trump and the Ukrainian president.
During the call, Trump asked Zielinski to investigate his Democratic rival Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Democrats see the request as evidence of "abuse of authority" and "abuse of power," and opened in the House of Representatives investigations to "isolate" the president.
In the same conversation, Trump criticized Jovanovic, who was meanwhile summoned to Washington. "Things will happen to her," Trump said.
