The witnesses: Impeachment investigators will hear from Bill Taylor, the top American diplomat in Ukraine, and George Kent, a senior State Department official in charge of Ukraine policy.
The room: Democrats chose the spacious, columned, television-friendly chambers of the Ways and Means Committee — the House’s grandest hearing room — to serve as the backdrop for the hearings.
The officials: The hearing is taking place before the House Intelligence Committee and will be led by its Democratic chairman, Representative Adam Schiff, as well as his Republican counterpart, Representative Devin Nunes.
The prosecutors (of sorts): We’ll see at least two new faces: the staff lawyers who have been asking many of the questions in private witness depositions. Daniel Goldman, a former federal prosecutor in Manhattan, will ask questions for Democrats. Steve Castor, a congressional investigator who has worked in the House since 2005, will ask questions for Republicans
The format: Under special rules adopted late last month, interviews will be split into 45-minute segments each for Mr. Schiff and Mr. Nunes. That time can be delegated to the staff lawyers, which Mr. Schiff said he was likely to do for a substantial block of his allotted
Common Questions About Impeachment
What is impeachment?
Impeachment is charging a holder of public office with misconduct.
Why is the impeachment process happening now?
A whistle-blower complaint filed in August said that White House officials believed they had witnessed Mr. Trump abuse his power for political gain.
Can you explain what President Trump is accused of doing?
President Trump is accused of breaking the law by pressuring the president of Ukraine to look into former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., a potential Democratic opponent in the 2020 election.
What did the President say to the president of Ukraine?
A Harvard graduate and career diplomat who speaks Ukrainian, Russian and Thai, Mr. Kent joined the State Department in 1992 and now holds the title of deputy assistant secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs. He has a deep knowledge of corruption in Ukraine from his time as an anticorruption coordinator in the State Department’s European Bureau in 2014 and 2015, and later as deputy chief of mission in the United States Embassy in Kiev from 2015 until 2018.
WASHINGTON — A Vietnam War veteran with decades of diplomatic experience, William B. Taylor Jr has provided some of the sharpest objections so far to the Trump administration’s shadow foreign policy campaign in Ukraine.
At the State Department, Mr. Taylor is known for candor — even if it puts him at odds with his superiors. When Mr. Taylor, currently the top American diplomat in Kiev, disagrees with policy decisions, he does not mince his words.
Mr. Taylor had warned that pressuring Ukraine to investigate President Trump’s political opponents by withholding security assistance would be “crazy.” That message was sent in a Sept. 9 text to Gordon D. Sondland, the United States ambassador to the European Union.
In a text to Mr. Sondland a day earlier, Mr. Taylor said he would quit if Ukrainian officials committed to an investigation and still did not receive the $391 million in aid — what he called a “nightmare” situation.
