WASHINGTON - House Democrats are preparing to move their largely private impeachment inquiry onto a more public stage as soon as mid-November and are already grappling with how best to present the complex Ukraine saga to the American people.
Both are seasoned diplomats who, in earlier House testimony, effectively conveyed outrage over a White House plan to withhold much-needed military aid from Ukraine, a long-standing ally battling pro-Russian separatists. After Mr Bolton resigned last month, he told The Washington Post that he would"have my say in due course".
The move toward the public spotlight comes as Mr Trump and his Capitol Hill allies have cast Democrats' closed-door investigation as a secretive smear campaign against the President. The committee members, including dozens of Republicans, have been taking part in impeachment depositions for weeks, with the chance to cross-examine witnesses.
At some point, Democrats expect to release transcripts of witness interviews and pull together a comprehensive report laying out their findings. While impeachment investigators planned to collect evidence and methodically build their case by interviewing senior members of the Trump administration before moving to public action, Democrats' timeline to go public may be affected by Republican disruptions.
Democrats believe that they have at least two smoking guns. One is the rough transcript of Mr Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in which he pressured the Ukrainian leader to investigate the Bidens and a conspiracy theory about the Democrats and the 2016 election.Mr Taylor's testimony this week, many lawmakers believe, further bolstered their case.
Democrats argue that Ms Yovanovitch would be a compelling witness, both for her substantive knowledge of Ukraine and her personal, emotional story of being victimised by Mr Giuliani's actions. Multiple Democratic officials said they hope to finish private depositions in early November so they can use the two-week work period just before Thanksgiving to have public hearings.
That means leaders will all but assuredly have to take the rare step of persuading lawmakers to sideline their egos and defer management of the hearing to skilled staff lawyers, and potentially the members with prosecutorial or relevant administrative experience.
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