What the first impeachment inquiry transcripts revealed on 4 November 2019
Two House committees' release of closed-door testimony from two former ambassadors brought Ukraine into the centre of a US political inquiry.
What did the first released testimony in the US impeachment inquiry show? On 4 November 2019, the U.S. House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the House Committee on Foreign Affairs published transcripts of the first two closed-door depositions in the inquiry into President Donald Trump.
The transcripts covered the testimony of Marie Yovanovitch, former Ambassador to Ukraine, and Michael McKinley, former Ambassador to Brazil.
Yovanovitch said she felt threatened by President Trump. McKinley said he had resigned from his position because he was concerned about US diplomatic missions being engaged to procure negative political information for domestic purposes. He said he had never observed the State Department take part in such activity during his career, with the exception of the Trump administration.
A separate decision in Kyiv
Shortly before, on 30 October 2019, Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, renamed the city of Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi as Pereiaslav.
