House committees have released two transcripts from private hearings related to impeachment proceedings against President Trump.
The transcripts, made available Monday, include the questioning of Michael McKinley, a former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
In a press release about the transcripts, committee leaders Adam Schiff, Eliot Engel, and Carolyn Maloney, noted that this is the first step in taking the impeachment investigation public.
“As we move towards this new public phase of the impeachment inquiry, the American public will begin to see for themselves the evidence that the committees have collected,” they wrote. “With each new interview, we learn more about the president’s attempt to manipulate the levers of power to his personal political benefit.”
These transcripts are the first full hearings to be released, though several details were leaked by members inside the proceedings.
McKinley, who resigned from his position advising Pompeo, claimed he was “disturbed” by Trump’s request for dirt on 2020 presidential hopeful Joe Biden.
Yovanovitch had been a critic of Trump before her testimony before Congress took place, leaving the president to claim, “She would not accept me as the new president.”
These are just the first of several transcripts to be released. On Sunday, California Democratic Rep. Jackie Speier claimed most of the transcripts would be available to the public by the end of the week.
