This archive report was first published on 7 November 2019.
On November 7, 2019, the public phase of the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine began, with Democrats racing to position themselves for the new phase.
According to a White House official, the administration would add two officials to help draft its public response to the inquiry. These officials were Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general, and Tony Sayegh, a former aide to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who would join the staff on a temporary basis.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump's allies on Capitol Hill were considering changes to the Republican makeup of the Intelligence Committee and road-testing new lines of defense of Mr. Trump's behavior.
House investigators were working to complete private depositions with a half-dozen or so remaining witnesses. On Wednesday, they questioned David Hale, the No. 3 official at the State Department, but three others skipped their scheduled appearances. Those officials were Russell T. Vought, the acting director of the Office of Management and Budget; T. Ulrich Brechbuhl, a counselor at the State Department who was among the officials listening in on Mr. Trump's July 25 call with President Zelensky; and Rick Perry, the energy secretary.
Two high-profile witnesses, John R. Bolton, the president's former national security adviser, and Mick Mulvaney, the acting White House chief of staff, are expected to defy congressional requests to appear on Thursday and Friday.
Mr. Giuliani's role in the pressure for investigations was also highlighted in the testimony of a top Ukraine diplomat, who stated, 'I think the origin of the idea to get President Zelensky to say out loud he's going to investigate Burisma and 2016 election, I think the originator, the person who came up with that, was Mr. Giuliani.'
