WASHINGTON, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) - The U.S. House Committee on Intelligence held the first public hearing Wednesday since House Democrats launched an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump in September to determine whether he abused his office in his interactions with Ukraine.
Appearing for the inaugural public hearing are William Taylor, Charge d'Affairs of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, and George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs. Taylor and Kent both attended closed-door depositions with House lawmakers in October, during which they voiced concerns about the president's dealings with Kiev.
In his prepared opening statement, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, a California Democrat and Trump's frequent target of attacks since the impeachment proceedings began, said impeachment investigators are seeking answers from witnesses whether Trump leveraged a White House meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and millions of U.S. dollars in military aid to the country to pressure the Ukrainian leader to investigate Trump's political rivals.
"And if President Trump did either, whether such an abuse of his power is compatible with the office of the presidency?" Schiff said. "The matter is as simple, and as terrible as that."
Schiff said "there are still missing pieces" in the chain of events relating to the Ukraine controversy, despite the evidence gathered from previous depositions by subpoenaed witnesses. He accused Trump of stonewalling the impeachment effort by instructing government agencies to ignore congressional subpoenas for documents and prohibiting witnesses from appearing for testimonies as requested by House committees.
"These actions will force Congress to consider," the chairman said, "whether Trump's obstruction of the constitutional duties of Congress constitute additional grounds for impeachment."
Devin Nunes, ranking member of the Intelligence Committee and the top Republican on the panel, in his opening remarks slammed the Democrats' impeachment effort as an orchestrated smear campaign against Trump.
"We're supposed to take these people at face value when they trot out a new batch of allegations, but anyone familiar with the Democrat's scorched Earth war against President Trump would not be surprised to see all the typical signs that this is a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign," Nunes said.
He criticized the Democrats for "pushing impeachment forward without the backing of a single Republican." The Democratic-controlled House on Oct. 31 passed a resolution formalizing the impeachment inquiry with no Republican members voting for it.
Nunes listed three "crucial questions" the GOP expected for the hearings: The full extent of Democratic coordination with the whistleblower whose revelation of the Trump-Ukraine interactions triggered the impeachment inquiry; the extent of Ukraine's meddling in Trump's 2016 campaign; and the reason for the Ukrainian energy company Burisma to hire former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter, as well as whether Hunter's position affected government actions of the administration of former President Barack Obama. Enditem
