Democrats release transcript from top diplomat’s testimony in impeachment probe

House Democrats on Thursday released the transcript of a senior diplomat who purportedly told Congress last month as part of the impeachment inquiry that President Trump’s anti-corruption campaign in Ukraine was itself corrupt.

George Kent, a senior State Department official who is expected to testify publicly next week, voiced concern about Rudy Giuliani’s contacts with Ukraine as early as March of this year, which prompted a supervisor to warn him to lay low, according to one Democratic lawmaker present during the deposition last month.{mosads}

Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, oversees administrative policy in a bloc of Eastern European countries, including Ukraine, which has emerged as the focal point of the Democrats’ growing investigation.

The verbatim transcript is the sixth to be released by the Democrats this week, as they wind down the closed-door deposition stage of their impeachment investigation and transition to a public hearing phase, beginning next week. Amid that transition, impeachment investigators on Thursday heard from what could be their last witness to be interviewed privately: Jennifer Williams, a career foreign service officer and top national security adviser to Vice President Pence, huddled behind closed doors for roughly five hours.

DEVELOPING