The House impeachment inquiry began in earnest Thursday with Democrats interviewing a former U.S. diplomat to Ukraine, the first witness brought to speak under oath in their probe. Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, abruptly resigned last week after being named repeatedly in the whistleblower complaint at the heart of Democrats’ impeachment inquiry, which alleges that President Trump asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, one of Trump’s possible opponents in the 2020 presidential race. At the time, the White House was holding up hundreds of millions of dollars in U.S. aid for the Ukrainian military. “Not one thing he has said comports any of the Democrats’ impeachment narrative. Not one thing,” Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), the ranking Republican on the Oversight Committee, told reporters a few hours into the deposition.

Source: Los Angeles Times October 03, 2019 18:11 UTC