WASHINGTON – The House panel conducting the impeachment inquiry into allegations President Donald Trump pressured Ukraine to investigate his political rivals started releasing the transcripts from the closed-door interviews with witnesses on Monday.
For weeks, the public relied only on leaks and comments from lawmakers to get details from the depositions. The transcripts offer the public an unfiltered view of what witnesses said they knew about the president's dealings with Ukraine.
The first two transcripts to be made public were of the testimonies of Marie Yovanovitch, the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, and Matthew McKinley, who had served as an adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
Despite the bipartisan composition of the committees conducting the interviews, Republicans had denounced the private depositions, implying House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was up to something nefarious by holding the "secret" hearings in the "basement of the Capitol."
Republicans at one point staged a dramatic interruption of one hearing, halting the testimony of Defense Department official Laura Cooper after they barged into the secure room where she was being questioned.
A Washington Post-ABC News poll released Tuesday found Republicans' concerns resonated with voters, with nearly two-thirds of Americans saying they thought the hearings should be public.
Democrats have defended the private depositions as a necessary step before they begin to hold public hearings and hoped the release of the transcripts would help quell concerns about transparency.
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Here is the text from the testimonies that have been released so far: