Updated
A new and unparalleled chapter in Donald Trump's
tumultuous presidency has been marked, as a Democrat-led impeachment
probe in the US Congress went public with televised hearings into
allegations about Mr Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
Key points:
- Nancy Pelosi said the impeachment probe was necessary to show Mr Trump is not above the law
- Republican Devin Nunes said it was "a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign"
- Witness Bill Taylor said he found two channels of US policy toward Ukraine, one of them "highly irregular"
With a potential television audience of tens of millions looking on, Democratic Representative Adam Schiff, chairman of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, opened the historic session — the first impeachment spectacle in two decades — in an ornate hearing room packed with journalists, politicians and members of the public.
"There are few actions as consequential as the impeachment of a president," Mr Schiff said in his opening statement.
"The questions presented by this impeachment inquiry are whether President Trump sought to exploit [Ukraine's] vulnerability and invite Ukraine's interference in our elections.
"Our answer to these questions will affect not only the future of this presidency, but the future of the presidency itself, and what kind of conduct or misconduct the American people may come to expect from their commander-in-chief."
Speaking minutes before the start of the hearings, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, said the probe was necessary to show Mr Trump he can't do "whatever he wants."
"That he is not above the law," Ms Pelosi said.
"And that he will be held accountable."
'Actions undermine the rule of law', witness says
The day's first two witnesses — Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs — began with opening statements echoing their earlier closed-door testimony about their alarm over efforts to get Ukraine to open an investigation of former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 election.
Mr Taylor, a career diplomat and former US Army officer, is now in charge of d'affaires of the US embassy in Kiev. Mr Kent oversees Ukraine policy at the State Department.
"I do not believe the United States should ask other countries to engage in selective, politically associated investigations or prosecutions against opponents of those in power, because such selective actions undermine the rule of law regardless of the country," Mr Kent said.Mr Taylor said he found two channels of US policy toward Ukraine — one regular and one "highly irregular" — and recounted how an interaction between Mr Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy was improperly conditioned on Kiev agreeing to investigate Burisma, where Mr Biden's son had been a board member, and the debunked notion of Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.
Mr Taylor said he became aware that a hold on the security aid was contingent to Ukraine opening the investigations.
In a fresh disclosure, Mr Taylor said his staff told him about a July 26 conversation that US Ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, had with Mr Trump following Mr Sondland's meeting with a Zelenskiy adviser, and that Mr Sondland afterward said Mr Trump cared more about the Biden investigations pushed by his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani.
'A carefully orchestrated media smear campaign'
Mr Trump, who maintains he did nothing wrong, lashed out at the inquiry with a series of tweets early on Wednesday morning (local time) citing prominent supporters who called it a "partisan sham."
Addressing the intelligence committee hearing, the panel's top Republican, Devin Nunes, assailed the impeachment process as "a carefully orchestrated media smear campaign" that was part of a "scorched-earth war against President Trump".
He argued that Mr Trump did nothing wrong or impeachable when he asked Ukraine's new president to investigate Mr Biden.
"It's nothing more than an impeachment process in search of a crime," Mr Nunes said.The investigation threatens to make Mr Trump only the third US president to be impeached, after Andrew Johnson in 1868 and Bill Clinton in 1998, although to be removed from office he would need to be convicted by the Republican-led Senate.
Neither Mr Johnson nor Mr Clinton was convicted and removed. But in 1974, Richard Nixon resigned in the face of certain impeachment and removal from office for the Watergate scandal.
Reuters/AFP
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