Ousted Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch is also scheduled to testify publicly on Friday.
Jeanine SantucciThe House is kicking off its public phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump with the hearing of State Department official George Kent and Ambassador Bill Taylor, the current top diplomat in Ukraine.
Kent shared with lawmakers that he does"not believe the U.S. should ask other countries to engage in politically associated investigations and prosecutions.” Though Kent said he was not aware of a direct leveraging involving U.S. military aid, he said there was a link between a much-desired visit by Zelensky to the White House and the investigations.
He testified that “our engagement with Ukraine shifted into, shall we say, unusual channels.” He was just one of several officials who described an unofficial diplomatic channel that at times did not align with standard policy with Ukraine. He added that after security assistance was held up, "The irregular policy channel was running contrary to the goals of longstanding U.S. policy."
Taylor became one of a few witnesses to recount a July meeting between U.S. and Ukrainian officials, including former National Security Adviser John Bolton, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman and Fiona Hill, former National Security Council official.
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