(13 Nov 2019) FOR CLEAN VERSION SEE STORY NUMBER: apus126670

Testimony in the House's first public impeachment hearing has ended, with more hearings to come.
State Department officials William Taylor and George Kent testified for more than five hours Wednesday about their concerns with President Donald Trump's requests that Ukraine investigate Democrats as the U.S. withheld military aid to the country.
Career U.S. diplomat William Taylor advanced fresh testimony tying Trump to efforts pressing Ukraine to investigate his political rivals as House investigators launched historic public impeachment hearings Wednesday.
Both Taylor and Kent defied White House instructions not to testify. They both received subpoenas to appear.
Republicans retorted that the Democrats still have no more than second- and third-hand knowledge of allegations that Trump held up millions of dollars in military aid from the Eastern European nation facing Russian aggression.
The hearing, the first on television for the nation to see, provided hours of partisan back-and-forth but so far no singular moment etched in the public consciousness as grounds for removing the 45th president from office.
Despite Republican interjections and objections, the scene offered the credibility that Democrats wanted to set the stage and sway public opinions.
At the start, Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chairman of the Intelligence Committee, outlined the question at the core of the impeachment inquiry -- whether the president used his office to pressure Ukraine officials for personal political gain.
"The matter is as simple and as terrible as that," said Schiff of California. "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."
The top Republican on the panel, Rep. Devin Nunes of California, accused the Democratic majority of conducting a "scorched earth" effort to take down the president after the special counsel's Russia investigation into the 2016 election failed to spark impeachment proceedings.
Republicans said the witnesses didn't have firsthand knowledge and noted the aid was eventually released. The U.S. government released the money after pressure from senators in early September.
A Republican lawmaker in the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump says the whistleblower is the "one witness" who should be brought in front of the American people.
The inquiry was launched after an anonymous whistleblower's complaint that Trump, in the July phone call, pressured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to investigate Democratic foe Joe Biden and Biden's son -- all while the U.S. was holding up U.S. military aid.
Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio says the whistleblower, whose complaint touched off the inquiry, should come before the committee. He says he wants to know the identity of the whistleblower, a CIA officer assigned to the White House.
Jordan earlier complained that the witnesses Wednesday testifying publicly for the first time didn't have firsthand knowledge of the accusations and never spoke directly to President Donald Trump.
The whistleblower has not been asked to testify.
Democratic Rep. Peter Welch of Ohio said he'd be glad to have the person who started it all testify: "President Trump is welcome to sit right there."
Next up will be former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, who was ousted in May on Trump's orders. She will testify Friday.

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