The first witnesses to the House impeachment hearings offered a cogent, damaging portrait of President Trump's attempts to strong-arm Ukraine to investigate Democrats. Some of next week's witnesses may offer a rebuttal.
Democrats this week enter a do-or-die phase of their impeachment inquiry following a week of public testimony, as they summon a flurry of witnesses they hope will convince the public that President Trump should be impeached for pressing a foreign government to launch criminal investigations for his political benefit.
Turley and other constitutional scholars said Republicans struggled to find a coherent narrative in defending Trump, though they scored points by arguing that no witnesses have provided direct evidence linking the president to nefarious activity. On Saturday, Mark Sandy, a career official at the Office of Management and Budget, testified behind closed doors about his work on Ukraine matters. Sandy’s decision to testify was significant because the OMB froze funds headed to Ukraine’s military as allies of the president pushed Kyiv to launch investigations of Trump political opponents, and because appointees at the OMB have declined to comply with subpoenas for testimony and records.
As they pushed for such probes, Trump associates and administration officials dangled the possibility of an Oval Office meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump. The White House also froze delivery of nearly $400 million in sorely needed aid to Ukraine’s military. A top U.S. diplomat testified to House investigators that he told a Ukranian official such aid would not be unlocked “until Ukraine provided the public anti-corruption statement that we had been discussing.
Democrats are trying to draw “straight lines from the president to his agents,” said Rep. Eric Swalwell , adding, “We’re just trying to establish the timeline, and then on the shakedown scheme who has a straight line to the president and who doesn’t.” Sondland’s proximity to the president became more clear on Wednesday, when Taylor described a phone call between Trump and Sondland that he said took place in July.
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