HERE'S THE DEAL
IMPEACHMENT EDITION

Hello from the U.S. Capitol! We left left the impeachment hearing room and tapped out this special edition of the Impeachment Brief to give you the latest. 

It’s a rare time, with House Democrats launching public hearings as part of an investigation into whether to impeach President Donald Trump. Rare, but when you take out repetitive testimony and talking points, the news from yesterday’s hearing was relatively brief. 

What happened? See our video summary, with highlight clips from testimony here. Or keep reading.

New testimony from William Taylor

• Taylor is the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, serving as acting ambassador after the ouster of Marie Yovanovich this summer.

• Taylor added new testimony yesterday, saying he had learned new details from a staff member. According to Taylor, that staff member overheard Trump talking about “investigations” in a phone call with the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.

• That call was in Kyiv, Taylor testified, just days after the phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky in which Trump asked Zelensky to investigate the 2016 election and the Biden family.

• Democrats see that testimony as connecting some important dots and showing that Trump was repeatedly pushing for investigations that could help him politically.

• Republicans dismiss their testimony as unreliable hearsay with no indication of what “investigations” the president may have meant.

A few other things we learned

• Looking for more takeaways? Our colleague Daniel Bush wrote a whole story about them after watching yesterday’s hearing.

• Friday: David Holmes will testify. He is a U.S. official working in the embassy in Kyiv. Multiple sources confirmed to NewsHour that he is the staff member who told William Taylor he overheard the president speaking of “investigations. 

• Saturday: Mark Sandy is scheduled to testify.  He is an official at the Office of Management and Budget. If Sandy appears, he will be the first staff member from that agency to testify. Others have refused to comply with Congressional subpoenas.