House Judiciary Committee Dec 4 Getty Images

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday launched its first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

Three legal experts gave powerful testimony that Trump abused his office and should be impeached.

The GOP’s witness contradicted his own previous testimony.

The judiciary committee houses a number of firebrand Republicans known for their scorched-earth style of attacks, and Wednesday’s hearing quickly devolved into theatrics and partisan mudslinging.

Scroll down to read the key takeaways from the committee’s hearing.

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The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday launched its first public hearing in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

At the center of the investigation is a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, during which Trump repeatedly pressured Zelensky to investigate his political rival and a bogus conspiracy theory alleging Ukrainian interference in the 2016 election.

A cascade of witness testimony revealed that the phone call was just one data point in a monthslong effort to force Ukraine to accede to Trump’s political demands while vital security assistance and a White House meeting that Zelensky desperately sought were withheld. On Tuesday, the House Intelligence Committee released a report concluding that the president engaged in conditioning „a White House meeting and military aid to Ukraine on a public announcement of investigations beneficial to his reelection campaign.“

The pressure campaign was spearheaded by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, who acted at Trump’s direction. But Gordon Sondland, the US’s ambassador to the EU, testified last month that „everyone“ was in the loop, including top brass at the State Department and within the White House.

Until Wednesday, the House Intelligence Committee conducted impeachment hearings that featured fact witnesses and were geared toward getting the evidence together before handing the investigation off to the judiciary committee. By contrast, the judiciary committee’s hearing was focused on laying out the case for and against impeachment by Democrats and Republicans, respectively. But the event quickly deteriorated into a partisan political affair.

Here are the biggest takeaways from Wednesday’s hearing