WTF Just Happened Today

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

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tl;dr The first public hearings in the Trump impeachment inquiry started today as the House Intelligence Committee heard testimony from Bill Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official. Taylor, in closed-door testimony, previously linked Trump to the quid pro quo at the heart of the impeachment probe. Kent previously told investigators that he was uneasy with attempts by Rudy Giuliani to influence Ukraine policy and smear the now-ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, Marie Yovanovitch.

• Read: Adam Schiff's opening statement

• Read: Devin Nunes’ opening statement

• Read: George Kent's opening statement

• Read: Kent's testimony from last month

• Read: Bill Taylor's opening statement

• Read: Taylor's testimony from last month

• Live Blogs and Sourcing. All notes below are sourced either directly or indirectly from the following live blogs: New York Times / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / Bloomberg / NBC News / CNN / FiveThirtyEight / The Guardian / Politico / CBS News

1/ The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine testified that Trump asked about "the investigations" during a call with the U.S. ambassador to the European Union on July 26 – the day after Trump pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Biden and his son while he was holding U.S. military aid from Ukraine. Bill Taylor told the House Intelligence Committee that a member of his staff overheard Trump mention "the investigations" to Sondland, and that "Sondland told President Trump that the Ukrainians were ready to move forward....

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