Watch live as Congress opens impeachment inquiry hearing into President Donald Trump

The first U.S. House Intelligence Committee hearing on an impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine has opened.

Watch a livestream of the hearing, at which two U.S. diplomats are scheduled to testify and answer questions from lawmakers.

What’s Trump accused of doing?

Trump is accused of withholding $400 million in military aid to Ukraine — which Congress had already approved — to get the Eastern European country to investigate the son of political rival and former Vice President Joe Biden. The Associated Press reports a whistleblower complaint revealed a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky when the American president asked his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Biden’s family and Ukraine’s possible role in influencing the 2016 election.

Ukraine was, and still is, fighting with Russian-backed separatists in a war that has lasted five years and killed 13,000, PBS News Hour reports.

Democrats say the withholding of aid is evidence of a “quid pro quo.” It’s illegal “to solicit anything of value from a person from a foreign country in U.S. elections” under federal law, as noted by the AP.

A whistleblower complaint filed by a member of the CIA on Aug. 12 gave details about the president and his personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani’s moves to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden, The Washington Post reported. “The complaint also alleges that the White House moved to ‘lock down’ the details of a July 25 call between Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart,” The Post reported.

What do Trump’s defenders say?

A Republican strategy memo released Tuesday argues the evidence doesn’t show Trump tried to pressure Ukrainian leaders into investigating Biden’s family by holding up military aid, CBS News reported.

The strategy memo says Zelensky has denied feeling pressured in the July 25 call and that Ukrainian officials were unaware at the time that the aid had been put on hold, though this has been disputed by U.S. officials testifying in the inquiry, according to the network. The memo also says the U.S. released the aid package in September without any Ukrainian investigation of Biden’s family taking place.

Trump, who has frequently described the July 25 call as “perfect,” has denounced the impeachment inquiry as a “witch hunt” and demanded lawmakers instead investigate his accusations against Biden’s family, Fox News reported.

What happens next?

Starting Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee will hold open hearings on the impeachment inquiry led by committee chair Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

“Lawmakers will hear testimony from William Taylor, Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State George Kent,” beginning Wednesday at 10 a.m., according to C-SPAN. They testify together Wednesday before the committee.

Taylor said during his deposition with the committee that he threatened to quit when he learned Trump was withholding the military aid, NBC reports. According to the network, he told a colleague in a text message, “it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign.”

Kent issued a memo soon after the call between Trump and the Ukrainian president outlining “his concerns that there was an effort to initiate politically motivated prosecutions that were injurious to the rule of law, both in Ukraine and the U.S,” according to CBS News.

On Friday, Marie Yovanovitch, the ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine, is scheduled to testify. She said Trump had her recalled from Ukraine earlier this year after a “concerted campaign against her,” NPR reports.

Lawmakers have not outlined a timeline for the impeachment inquiry, but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has said she wants to move through it “expeditiously,” the AP reports. Democrats have said they hope to complete the inquiry by the end of the year, per the AP.

“If the House approves articles of impeachment, the matter would move to the Republican-led Senate for a trial, with senators as jurors. For now, it seems unlikely that the Senate would vote to convict Trump,” according to the AP.

This story was originally published November 13, 2019 at 7:25 AM with the headline "Watch live as Congress opens impeachment inquiry hearing into President Donald Trump."