Two top US diplomats for the first time publicly detailed how President Donald Trump and his associates allegedly withheld long-standing American military aid to Ukraine — unless the country's new presidential administration agreed to investigate Joe Biden, his family, and the 2016 election.



That alleged quid pro quo is at the heart of the impeachment inquiry, which held televised hearings for the first time Wednesday, giving Americans their first glimpse of the high-stakes investigation. The question is whether Trump placed his own personal, political needs above US national security.



Testifying before the House Intelligence Committee are two key figures: Bill Taylor, the top US diplomat to Ukraine, and George Kent, a career State Department official. Their closed-door depositions before congressional committees last month provided a damning account of Trump’s alleged quid pro quo request.

“The matter is as simple and as terrible as that. 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,” Rep. Adam Schiff, the chair of the House Intelligence Committee who is presiding over the hearings, said in his opening statement.



The big takeaways are:

Taylor revealed that a member of his staff overheard Trump on the phone to Gordon Sondland, the US ambassador to the European Union, asking about “the investigations” — referring to his political requests.

There was a lot of discussion about a debunked 4chan conspiracy theory involving cyber security firm CrowdStrike, which in part landed Trump in this situation in the first place.

Republicans argued over the identity of the whistleblower who sparked the proceedings, and rolled out their latest talking point: the impeachment hearings are "boring."

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Both Kent and Taylor argued in dire terms that developing the US relationship with Ukraine helps protect American interests against Russia — which annexed part of Ukraine in 2014 — in the region. "It affects the world we live in, that our children and grandchildren will grow up in. This affects the kind of world we want to see. That affects our national interests very directly. Ukraine is on the frontline of that conflict," Taylor said.

Dan Goldman, the lawyer for the Democrats on the committee asked Kent during the hearings if "pressuring Ukraine to conduct what I believe you've called political investigations, a part of US foreign policy to promote the rule of law in Ukraine and around the world?"





Kent: It is not. Goldman: It is in the national interests of the United States? Kent: In my opinion, it is not. ... Goldman: So in other words, it is a purpose of our foreign policy to encourage foreign nations to refrain from conducting political investigations, is that right? Kent: Correct.

Kent also testified that he wrote a memo on Aug. 16 outlining his concerns that the administration was pressuring Ukraine to open investigations to benefit Trump.



This is how we got here:

In September, the whistleblower’s complaint — filed on Aug. 12 and detailing his and other US officials concerns about Trump’s interactions with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — was made public.

According to the complaint, White House officials said Trump abused his “office for personal gain” by asking Zelensky to investigate Biden, his family, and the 2016 election. The complaint also alleged that White House officials sought to cover up the call.

The complaint was released publicly a day after the White House put out a summary of Trump’s July 25 call with Zelensky in which he asked Zelensky to do him a “favor” and investigate Biden as well as an unfounded right-wing conspiracy theory about the 2016 election involving CrowdStrike. During the call, Trump asked Zelensky to investigate CrowdStrike, which was hired to investigate the hack of the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 election.

Trump also wanted Zelensky to investigate unsubstantiated allegations that Biden used his position as vice president to quash a corruption investigation of a Ukrainian gas company — Burisma — which had hired Biden’s son, Hunter, in 2014.

Hunter’s role on the board of Burisma — which was embroiled in a corruption scandal at the time — had raised some concerns in the Obama administration. However, there has been no evidence of wrongdoing. Biden was one of many Western officials calling for the ouster of the Ukrainian prosecutor investigating Burisma — there is no evidence to suggest that his son benefited from his efforts.

Trump’s obsession with Ukraine was influenced primarily by Rudy Giuliani, a lawyer working for Trump, who created a shadow foreign policy in Ukraine rife with conspiracy theories about Crowdstrike sourced from Reddit and 4chan.

In October, a lawyer representing the whistleblower said that he was representing a second whistleblower who had first-hand knowledge that corroborated some allegations made in the original complaint.