Watch Gordon Sondland’s testimony at Trump impeachment hearings
His testimony could be the first to directly tie Trump to the alleged plan.
The fourth day of public hearings in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump began Wednesday morning featuring testimony from Gordon Sondland, the U.S. ambassador to the European Union.
Sondland planned to share text messages and other communications that he says shows coordination of the alleged scheme with top officials at the White House and State Department, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
His testimony could be the first to directly tie Trump to the alleged plan, and undercuts one of Republicans’ main defenses: their contention that Sondland and Trump’s personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani, were driving the pressure for a political investigation without the president’s explicit approval.
The hearing can be streamed below, courtesy of PBS:
» READ MORE: Sondland says Trump ordered Ukraine 'quid pro quo'
“Mr. Giuliani was expressing the desires of the president of the United States, and we knew that these investigations were important to the president,” Sondland planned to tell the House Intelligence Committee, according to his 19-page opening statement.
"Was there a quid pro quo?” Sondland planned to say in his opening remarks to House investigators. “The answer is yes.”
Viewers can follow Sondland’s testimony via major cable news networks including C-SPAN, CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC, which will air Wednesday’s proceedings live in between analysis and special coverage. Locally, 6ABC, CBS3, NBC10, and WHYY-TV will supersede typically programming with live coverage of the hearing, with Fox29 carrying just the opening statements live.
» READ MORE: Why Fox 29 isn’t airing the impeachment hearings live
Wednesday’s hearing will continue in the afternoon with testimony from Laura Cooper, assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia; and David Hale, undersecretary of state for political affairs. The afternoon hearing starts at 2:30 p.m.