Watch Live: Impeachment Inquiry Open Hearing Day 2

November 15, 2019 8:45 am EST Tiff Feature 2
President Trump and President Zelensky 9/25/19. Photo by The Presidential Office of the Ukraine.

It’s been 52 days since the Impeachment Inquiry began. On Wednesday the House Intelligence Committee held the first public hearing regarding the Impeachment Inquiry into President Donald Trump.

On Friday former U.S. Ambassador to the Ukraine Marie “Masha” Yovanovitch is scheduled to offer public testimony related to both the official US/Ukraine diplomatic relationship as well as the irregular channel that was forged by President Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

Yovanovitch appeared behind closed-doors to offer her testimony to the three House Committees handling the Impeachment Inquiry on October 11th. The Committees made her testimony public on November 4th.

In her opening statement Yovanovitch explains the situation in Ukraine and explains that Ukraine since 2014 is not simply fighting a war with Russia, but is also fighting a war inside itself:

as political and economic forces compete to determine what kind of country Ukraine will become: the same old, oligarch-dominated Ukraine
where corruption is not just prevalent, but is the system? Or the country that Ukrainians demanded in the Revolution of Dignity—a country where rule of law is the system, corruption is tamed, and people are treated equally and according to the law?

Yovanvitch Opening Statement.

She goes on to address recent media reports that say she attempted to sway Ukraine from investigating or prosecuting certain individuals by giving the Ukraine Prosecutor General at the time Yuriy Lutsenko a “do not prosecute list.”

I want to categorically state that I have never myself or through others, directly or indirectly, ever directed, suggested, or in any other way asked for any government or government official in Ukraine (or elsewhere) to refrain from investigating or prosecuting actual corruption

Yovanvitch Opening Statement.

She concludes her statement:

I am proud of my work in Ukraine. The U.S. Embassy, under my leadership, represented and advanced the policies of the United States government as articulated, first by the Obama Administration and then by the Trump Administration. Our efforts were intended, and evidently succeeded, in thwarting corrupt interests in Ukraine, who fought back by selling baseless conspiracy theories to anyone who would listen. Sadly, someone was listening, and our nation is the worse off for that.

Yovanvitch Opening Statement.

Ahead of the second Impeachment Inquiry public hearing President Trump demanded an apology from the Democrats following comments made by Ukrainian Foreign Minister Vadym Prystaiko.

He went on to exclaim that the “FAKE IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY IS NOW DEAD!”

According to a Russian owned media outlet Interfax-Ukraine, Prystaiko told reporters in Kyiv on Thursday that the U.S. Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland, did not tell Ukraine or Prystaiko that military aide was condition on investigations.

Ambassador Sondland did not tell us, and did not tell me exactly, about the relation between the [military] assistance and the investigations. You should ask him. I do not recall any conversation with me as with foreign minister. It was not we, the Ukrainian officials (who were told this).

I have never seen a direct link between investigations and security assistance. Yes, investigations were mentioned, you know, in a presidential conversation. But there was no clear connection between these events.

Interfax-Unkraine.

According to the article Prystaiko said he had no contact with Sondland as an official.

Live Feed PBS News Hour.

Live Feed Washington Post.

Live Feed House Intelligence Committee.

To review the opening statements from Wednesday’s hearing featuring testimony from Ambassador William Taylor and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent @ Just Security.

Upcoming public hearings.

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