Watch: the first House public impeachment inquiry hearing starts Wednesday

The US House of Representatives’ impeachment inquiry moves into a new phase this week, with public impeachment hearings on Wednesday and Friday.

The first witnesses to appear will be Bill Taylor, the top diplomat in Ukraine; George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs; and former US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

All three are high-level current or former officials who had first-hand knowledge of the administration’s dealings with Ukraine, around the time President Donald Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, allegedly withholding military aid to the country in exchange for the information.

All three have been interviewed in closed-door impeachment depositions conducted jointly by the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees, and deposition transcripts for Taylor and Yovanovitch have been released. Additional hearings could be announced for next week as well.

Your guide to the Donald Trump impeachment saga

Understand the impeachment process, from its history to what comes next. Explore the full guide here.

This will be a historic moment, and one Democrats hope many Americans watch. As Vox’s Alex Ward reported last week, it’s also about holding hearings on camera so “the American people can see what investigators have already learned behind the scenes — and perhaps glean some new information.”

“The importance of public hearings is to make the case to the American people,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA), a House Oversight Committee member involved in the inquiry, told Ward.

The first hearing will start at 10 am on Wednesday and could last as long as 4:30 pm. Vox will live-stream the entire thing, which you can watch on Facebook and Twitter.

We're here to shed some clarity

One of our core beliefs here at Vox is that everyone needs and deserves access to the information that helps them understand the world, regardless of whether they can pay for a subscription. With the 2024 election on the horizon, more people are turning to us for clear and balanced explanations of the issues and policies at stake. We’re so grateful that we’re on track to hit 85,000 contributions to the Vox Contributions program before the end of the year, which in turn helps us keep this work free. We need to add 2,500 contributions this month to hit that goal. Will you make a contribution today to help us hit this goal and support our policy coverage? Any amount helps.

One-Time Monthly Annual

$5/month

$10/month

$25/month

$50/month

Other

$

Yes, I'll give $5/month

Yes, I'll give $5/month

We accept credit card, Apple Pay, and Google Pay. You can also contribute via