President Donald Trump’s top diplomat to Ukraine testified Tuesday in a closed-door deposition to members of Congress in the House's impeachment inquiry, and his remarkable 15-page statement raised serious concerns about Trump's denials of a quid pro quo.

Bill Taylor wrote in the statement delivered to Congress that "there appeared to be two channels of U.S. policy-making and implementation, one regular and one highly irregular," and that it became clear to him that a freeze in U.S. aid to Ukraine was tied to a probe into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son, Hunter.

Read six of the statement's most astonishing scenes described in Taylor's testimony here.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham says that he will introduce a resolution in the Senate to condemn the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump in the House of Representatives.

"This resolution puts the Senate on record condemning the House. ... We cannot allow future presidents, and this president, to be impeached based on an inquiry in the House that's never been voted upon," Graham, R-S.C. told  Fox News' Sean Hannity on Tuesday night's show.

House Democrats have launched an impeachment inquiry into Trump centered on an alleged attempt to pressure the Ukrainian government to announce investigations into a conspiracy theory about the 2016 presidential election and into a gas company which had hired former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter.

Critics say that amounted to an abuse of power by Trump for his own political gain in the 2020 election. Some Republicans have complained the House effort is unfair.

There is no requirement that the House conduct a vote before launching an impeachment inquiry. Graham objected to the closed-door depositions that have been held, and he said "any impeachment vote based on this process, to me is illegitimate, is unconstitutional, and should be dismissed in the Senate without a trial."

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, told members of Congress Tuesday that President Donald Trump directed officials to tie foreign aid to Ukraine to demands that the country open an investigation into the Biden family as well as the 2016 election.

According to a copy of his opening statement provided to NBC News, Taylor said that E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland told him that while Trump was not requesting a "quid pro quo," he insisted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy publicly announce investigations into the Bidens and matters relating to the 2016 presidential election.

Taylor said that Sondland told him, "President Trump was adamant that President Zelenskiy, himself, had to "clear things up and do it in public." President Trump said it was not a "quid pro quo." Ambassador Sondland said that he had talked to President Zelenskiy and [Zelenskiy adviser Andriy] Yermak and told them that, although this was not a quid pro quo, if President Zelenskiy did not clear things up public, we would be at a stalemate."

"I understood a stalemate mean that Ukraine would not receive the much-needed military assistance," Taylor added.

Read more of Taylor's testimony here.

As of Tuesday afternoon, E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland has not been asked to come and testify again before the House, according to a person with knowledge of Sondland’s plans. But if they do ask, he is willing to do so, that person said.

Ukraine envoy Bill Taylor's testimony on Tuesday raised questions about Sondland's past statements.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., weighed in on the backlash over the president's Tuesday morning tweet comparing the impeachment inquiry to a "lynching." 

"Given the history in our country, I would not compare this to a lynching." McConnell said when asked about the president's remark. "That was an unfortunate choice of words." He added, "It is an unfair process, and a better way to characterize it would to be to call it an unfair process, and inconsistent with the kinds of procedural safeguards that are routinely provided for people in this kind of situation, either in court or in an impeachment process in our country."

McConnell also denied Trump's claim that the majority leader had said his July 25 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was "innocent." 

"I haven't — we've not had any conversations on that subject," McConnell said when asked about Trump's claim. Pressed on whether the president had been untruthful, the senator responded, "You'll have to ask him. I don't recall any conversations with the president about that phone call."

When asked earlier this month about what McConnell was telling him about the GOP's take on impeachment, Trump claimed that the senator had said, "That was the most innocent phone call that I've read."

WASHINGTON — The top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, Bill Taylor, offered a "disturbing" portrayal of President Donald Trump's Ukraine dealings during his closed door testimony to impeachment investigators on Tuesday, according to House Democrats.

Democrats described Taylor’s testimony as crucial, saying that he not only filled in many of the holes created by previous testimonies and depositions but is also drawing a "direct line" between the president's demand for an investigation by the Ukrainians into his political rivals and U.S. military aid.

"Without question the most powerful testimony," Rep. Steven Lynch, D-Mass., said, because Taylor has "first-hand knowledge” of all the conversations that were had.

Taylor’s opening statement is described by members as long, as many as 15 pages, according to Rep. Harley Rouda, D-Calif. Two Democrats also said that Taylor took "meticulous" personal notes but those have not yet been handed over to the committee.

Read more about Taylor's testimony and Democrats' reaction here.

Senate Democrats are asking the Trump Organization for details on how much it collects in business dealings from Turkey.

In a letter sent to President Donald Trump's company on Tuesday, four senators — Tom Udall of New Mexico, Tammy Duckworth of Illinois, Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts  — said they need information regarding the company's licensing agreement for Trump Towers-Istanbul to understand whether the president's foreign policy decisions "are being influenced by potential conflicts of interest." 

Trump's moves to withdraw U.S. troops out of northern Syria at Turkey's request and to delay action in a money laundering case involving a Turkish bank are among the decisions the four Democratic lawmakers cite. 

The letter notes that Trump himself acknowledged he could have "a little conflict of interest" when it comes to Turkey in a 2015 interview, and that the Trump Organization has pulled in between $1.2 million in royalties from the Trump Towers project since Trump took office.  

The letter seeks answers about how much the company has made from its licensing agreement for Trump Towers Istanbul-Sisli, whether the Turkish government has the power to revoke the license, and whether there have been any communications between the Trump Organization and the Turkish government about U.S.-Turkey government relations.

The letter asks for a response by Nov. 12. It comes one day after NBC News reported that House Democrats are zeroing in on the framework of an "abuse of power" narrative for their impeachment case against the president. 

A representative for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fl., shared her impressions so far from the ongoing deposition with Bill Taylor. She said she "has not seen a more credible witness." Schultz directly added, "I do not know how you would listen to today's testimony by the ambassador, Ambassador Taylor, and draw any other conclusion, except that the President abused his power and withheld foreign aid and, a meeting with a vital diplomatic partner, that is directly related to keeping Russia's incursion at bay in exchange an in an attempt to exchange and extract political assistance for his reelection campaign. It's a direct line."

The congresswoman said, "He drew a very direct line in a series of events he described as being President Trump's decision to withhold funds, and refuse a meeting with Zelenskiy unless there was a unless there was a public pronouncement by him of investigations of Burisma and the so-called 2016 election."

In terms of how this fits with the inquiry and what else they have heard she said, "it's like if you had 1000 piece puzzle, on a table. And these, you know subsequent depositions have really started to fill in pieces where at the beginning you know it’s not clear how everything is connected and this this filled in a lot of pieces of the puzzle and added others who I think would be worthy of questioning, some of them we were already probably planning to question and bring in for questioning anyway."

The congresswoman added, "This drew a straight line. I mean, it was straight line with documented timelines, individuals conversations."

She also said she has had several disturbing days in congress but this was "one of the most" disturbing days she’s had in Congress. 

Freshman Democratic Rep. Andy Levin told reporters as he was departing the closed door deposition with Ambassador Bill Taylor that today is his "most disturbing day in Congress" but wouldn’t elaborate further as to why he felt that way. 

He said, "All I have to say is that in my 10 short months in Congress — it’s not even noon, right? — and this is the, my most disturbing day in the Congress so far. Very troubling."

Lawmakers reacted with outrage Tuesday after Trump compared the impeachment inquiry to "a lynching," calling the remark offensive and saying the president should retract it.

"You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING?" Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., tweeted. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you. Delete this tweet." 

"Using this term draws up some of America’s darkest history — Trump is yet again a disgrace and massively offensive," Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., tweeted. "Nobody is above the law, including him. He has abused his power — and he’s been caught. Do not get caught up in his latest distraction tactic."

Asked about the president's tweet, Rep. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C., told reporters, "I resent it tremendously. I think that what we see here, once again, is this president attempting to change the narrative using what I consider to be real, caustic terms, in order to change the conversation. To compare the constitutional process to something like lynching is far beneath the office of the president of the United States."

Read the full story here.

President Donald Trump has called the House impeachment inquiry a "coup," a "witch hunt" and a "fraud," but he introduced a new phrase Tuesday to describe the process: "a lynching."

The president's use of "lynching," which elicits a time when black Americans were routinely murdered by extrajudicial white mobs, was the subject of immediate blowback.

"You think this impeachment is a LYNCHING?" Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., tweeted. "What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know how many people who look like me have been lynched, since the inception of this country, by people who look like you. Delete this tweet."

Read the full story here.

This week House Democrats will hear testimony from key witnesses, including acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor. How much more pressure can the administration's dam take? 

Amb. Bill Taylor — the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine — is set to be deposed in a closed session Tuesday. As NBC previously reported,Taylor has emerged as a key witness based on released text messages between him and the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland, and the former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine, Kurt Volker.

Taylor expressed his concern about where the administration was headed in its approach to Ukraine's newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, warning against tying a White House meeting or U.S. military assistance to investigations meant to benefit Trump's re-election effort.

The impeachment inquiry depositions scheduled for this Thursday and Friday have been postponed because of the memorials for the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., who was chairman of the House Oversight and Reform Committee, three Democratic sources told NBC News.

Here's the updated schedule, according to a committee official:

• Acting Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor is expected to appear in closed session Tuesday. 
• Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper is expected to appear in closed session Wednesday.

The committees are in discussions with additional witnesses about testifying.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats are zeroing in on a framework for their impeachment case against President Donald Trump that will center on a simple “abuse of power” narrative involving the president's actions regarding Ukraine, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations.

As Democrats continue closed-door depositions with critical witnesses and prepare to move to the next phase of public hearings, they are wrestling over which elements and evidence to bring in, which to leave out. The goal is to explain to the public the reasoning and relevance of any eventual impeachment charges...

Read the full story.

President Donald Trump on Monday repeatedly attacked the original whistleblower at the heart of the ongoing House impeachment inquiry, going as far as offer the baseless suggestion that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., was actually an informant behind the account of the president's dealings with Ukraine.

"Maybe the informant was Schiff," Trump said. "In my opinion, it’s possibly Schiff."

The first whistleblower, whose identity is not yet known, wrote in his or her complaint lodged through the intelligence community that they believed Trump had sought a foreign government to interfere in the 2020 election and that the White House was trying to cover up his conduct. That included a July 25 phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelesnkiy. Trump asked his counterpart to investigate a debunked conspiracy theory about the 2016 election as well as probe the Biden family, particularly former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter who had business dealings in Ukraine, according to a White House summary of the call.

The whistleblower relied on second-hand information for his or her account, which the whistleblower said was based off of information provided by administration officials with first-hand knowledge. There is no evidence that a source of the whistleblower's information was Schiff. The whistleblower did meet with a House Intelligence Committee aide before his or her complaint was made public. (Read the full complaint here.)

Trump then complained about the intelligence community inspector general, saying the official could have read the transcript "and then see the whistleblower’s account was totally different than" it.

"Then he would have said, 'Oh, there is no problem here,'" Trump said. "The whistleblower gave a false account."

Trump has repeatedly claimed the whistleblower gave a false account, though the complaint lined up with the call record released by the White House, was deemed credible by the Trump-appointed intelligence community inspector general and was authored by a whistleblower who the Trump-appointed acting Director of National Intelligence Joseph Maguire told Congress had acted in "good faith."

Trump on Monday again defended his call as "perfect," asking if "we have to protect a whistleblower who gives a false account?"

"I don’t know," Trump said. "You tell me."

House Republicans are expected to push a vote on Monday on a resolution to censure House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff. Republicans are taking issue with how Schiff is conducting the impeachment investigation. The House votes at 6:30PM ET.

Amb. Bill Taylor — the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine, who in a text message called a quid pro quo over military assistance "crazy" — is set to be deposed Tuesday. NBC News reports that Taylor left Ukraine last week  for Washington, D.C., after House Democrats requested he appear.

Among others invited for closed-door testimony this week are Trump administration officials in the State Department, White House budget office, National Security Council (NSC) and Defense Department. It’s not clear if all will appear as scheduled.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney insisted Sunday that he did not say that President Donald Trump held up military aid for Ukraine for political purposes — despite acknowledging the issue at the heart of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry during a televised press conference.

"I'm flinching because that's what people are saying that I said, but I didn't say that," Mulvaney told "Fox News Sunday" host Chris Wallace of the comments he made — and then walked back in a contradictory statement — Thursday.

Read more about Mulvaney's defense of his remarks here. 

The first episode is out now. Each week, host Steve Kornacki, national political correspondent for NBC News and MSNBC, talks with his colleagues about what's happening in Washington and why it matters for the nation.

Today, his guest is Julia Ainsley, who covers the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security. The pair discuss the closed-door nature of the House's inquiry into President Donald Trump. 

New episodes of Article II: Inside Impeachment will drop every Monday, Wednesday and Friday with bonus episodes for breaking news. Listen for free wherever you get your podcasts, and learn more about the show here. 

This week has shown the dismantling of President Trump's impeachment defense by his own people. What case have Democrat's built so far, and can the White House keep whatever is left of their defense standing?

Here is what has been advised for the closed-door depositions next week before the House Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees, according to an official working on the impeachment inquiry.

• Acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor is expected to appear Tuesday, Oct. 22.
• Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of European and Eurasian affairs, and Michael Duffey, the associate director for national security programs at the Office of Management and Budget, are expected to testify on Wednesday, Oct. 23.
• Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper and Alexander Vindman, director of European affairs at the National Security Council, are expected to give depositions on Thursday, Oct. 24.

The committees are in discussions with other witnesses.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., and Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., introduced a resolution Friday to require all House members be given access to the proceedings of the committees involved in the impeachment inquiry. Given that Democrats are in control of the chamber, however, it's unlikely the measure will advance.

The move comes as House Judiciary ranking member Doug Collins, R-Ga., sent a letter about getting access to the materials. Also on Friday, Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., sent a letter to House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., demanding transparency and accusing him of withholding documents from her and other Republicans on the panel.

WASHINGTON — House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., repeatedly defended White House acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Friday when asked if President Donald Trump should have confidence in him after he suggested Thursday that there was a quid pro quo in the Ukraine case.

“I think you saw Mick Mulvaney clarify his statement," McCarthy said. "He said, 'Let me be clear: There was absolutely no quid pro quo between Ukraine military aid and any investigation into the 2016 election. The president never told me to withhold any money until the Ukrainians did anything related to that server,'” McCarthy said. 

Pressed further, McCarthy added, “I think what Mick clarified in his statement was very clear. I watched in all those transcripts of what people have been saying inside the investigation, Volker and others, there was no quid pro quo.”

McCarthy also accused House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., of repeatedly lying about the House investigation and said he should be censured — something Republicans could try to do next week. 

“It is appropriate for him to be censured," McCarthy said. "The question will be, will their own members stand up for what is right? Do they think it's appropriate that the chair of the Intel Committee lied to the American public, but more importantly lying to them? How can you trust anything that he puts forth?”

State Department official George Kent told House investigators this week that he raised concerns in 2015 about the appearance of a conflict of interest about Hunter Biden, the son of then-Vice President Joe Biden, serving on the board of a Ukrainian energy company, but was ultimately rebuffed by a Biden aide, two sources familiar with the matter told NBC News. Kent did not provide the name of the Biden aide during his closed-door testimony, one source said.  

The Washington Post first reported on Kent's concerns. The Wall Street Journal also reports that Kent told investigators, “Regardless of whether anything is wrong, it looks terrible.”

The general view from Biden world about the reporting is that a State Department official flagging concerns about Hunter Biden’s role in Ukraine wouldn’t be unusual since there were contemporaneous  reports and public op-eds written at the time about the “optics issues” resulting from his position with Burisma. For example, a New Yorker profile of Hunter Biden recently noted how his decision to take the board seat was met with unease at State and elsewhere in the Obama administration.

“Several former officials in the Obama administration and at the State Department insisted that Hunter’s role at Burisma had no effect on his father’s policies in Ukraine, but said that, nevertheless, Hunter should not have taken the board seat," the magazine's Adam Entous wrote. "As the former senior White House aide put it, there was a perception that 'Hunter was on the loose, potentially undermining his father’s message.’"

Outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry, asked in media interviews Friday morning whether he would meet impeachment investigators' deadline to hand over documents related to Ukraine, said only that he would follow the advice of the department's general counsel.

"Whatever their decision will be, I'll follow that," he told Fox News. 

Perry also elaborated on his announcement yesterday that he will be resigning effective later this year, stating that "it has absolutely nothing to do with Ukraine" and that his relationship with President Donald Trump remains "awesome."

In an interview on The Brian Kilmeade Show, Perry also addressed the Friday subpoena deadline, and said, "we'll be responding on time, today, and I will follow the advice of my lawyers at the Department of Energy."

Friday marks the deadline for Mick Mulvaney, the White House acting chief of staff, to hand over documents relating to the July 25 phone call between President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other documents sought by the impeachment inquiry.

The White House has said it won't comply with the investigation and Mulvaney is not expected to comply with the subpoena.

Friday is also the deadline for Energy Secretary Rick Perry to hand over documents. Perry said Thursday he would resign by the end of the year.

E.U. Ambassador Gordon Sondland isn’t filling in as many gaps as lawmakers would have hoped, telling House committees that he can’t recall various details surrounding the Ukraine scandal, according to three sources present for parts of his ongoing testimony Thursday.

"A lot of memory lapses," said one lawmaker who was in the room.

As she emerged from the closed door deposition with Sondland, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fl., told NBC News that, "I'm concerned that he has been less than truthful throughout the day."

"I mean some of the things that he says he doesn't remember, it would be very hard to believe that he didn't remember, I mean very specific things that, you know, are unique to different situations that they've discussed throughout the day. And unless has the worst memory. Or, and is, you know, far more far more incompetent than than one would think an ambassador to the European Union should be," she said.

Yet two of the sources described Sondland as eager to distance himself from other players, especially Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani.

Sondland framed his contact with Giuliani as "very minimal" said a second lawmaker who said "Sondland was "walking a tightrope" in revealing information advantageous to himself but not recalling other details.

The lawmakers said his testimony did not appear designed to harm President Donald Trump so much as to insulate Sondland from the scandal.

A new poll from the Pew Research Center finds that a majority — 54 percent — of American adults approve of the House’s decision to begin an impeachment inquiry, while 44 percent disapprove.

The same poll found that a 58 percent majority says Trump definitely or probably has done things that are “grounds for impeachment.”

And it showed a lack of confidence in both parties when it comes to handling the impeachment inquiry. Fifty-seven percent say they are not confident that Republicans in Congress will be fair and reasonable during the inquiry, while 52 percent say the same of Democrats.

The Pew survey questioned a panel of respondents, which allows for re-asking the same questions to the same people at different points in time. Overall, nine percent of adults who opposed the impeachment proceedings early last month now approve of the House’s decision to open the inquiry.

Of that nine percent, 61 percent are Democrats or independents who lean toward the Democratic Party, while 32 percent are Republicans or independents who lean toward the Republican Party.

Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Thursday acknowledged that President Donald Trump held up aid to Ukraine partly over a debunked conspiracy theory involving the 2016 election.

"We do that all the time," he told reporters at a rare briefing.

"Get over it. There's going to be political influence in foreign policy," he added. The question of whether the assistance was held up for political reasons is at the heart of House Democrats' impeachment inquiry.

It is anyone's guess when the impeachment process might conclude.

The House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees have another full week of closed-door depositions lined up and there could be more to come. Intel Chairman Adam Schiff has said he also intends to hold open hearings.

Only then would action shift to the House Judiciary Committee, which would take up the work of the investigative committees, likely hold its own hearings, mark up and vote on the article(s). In past impeachments, the mark-up alone has taken several days. Only then would the full House debate the articles, then vote.

"Everyone that I talk to would like this to be done in 2019," Maryland Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the Oversight Vommittee, told reporters on Wednesday. "The problem is that the president is a one-man crime wave, and he's generated a number of arguably impeachable offenses, and we have a responsibility to research those."

Speaker Nancy Pelosi was even more blunt on Thursday when asked about the timeline: "I have no idea...The path, the timeline, will depend on the truth-line."

If and when any articles are sent to the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Wednesday he would act on them quickly.

A Christmas conclusion to the impeachment process is clearly on the mind of senators — for whom few things sharpen the mind more than the prospect of getting home for a holiday recess.

Bottom line? Don't make holiday plans yet.

NBC News has obtained a copy of a letter that Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s lawyers sent to House committees this morning explaining why he’s unable to give them the documents they’ve subpoenaed, but wishes the Trump administration would.

Sondland has turned over all relevant documents to the State Department “regardless of the device or platform on which they were created,” the lawyers wrote. That’s a reference to the fact that, as NBC News has previously reported, Sondland often used his personal cellphone to conduct diplomatic conversations and also communicated with WhatsApp.

But the sought-after records belong to the State Department, and by law and regulation, Sondland can’t produce them on his own, his lawyers wrote. The State Department “has directed Ambassador Sondland and other similarly situated employees not to provide documents without State Department’s approval,” they wrote.

“Ambassador Sondland has encouraged the State Department to provide the Committees with the requested documents in advance of his deposition," the lawyers wrote. "He strongly believes that disclosure will lead to a more fulsome and accurate inquiry into the matters at issue and will corroborate the testimony that he will give in key respects."

WASHINGTON — U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will tell Congress on Thursday that Rudy Giuliani told him President Donald Trump wanted Ukraine’s new government to investigate both the 2016 election and a natural gas firm tied to Hunter Biden, according to prepared testimony obtained by NBC News.

Sondland will testify that Giuliani, Trump’s personal lawyer, even mentioned getting the Ukrainians to investigate "the DNC server" — a reference to a Democratic National Committee computer that plays prominently in a debunked conspiracy theory about Ukrainian interference in 2016.

The ambassador is expected to tell House investigators that he ultimately learned that Giuliani, far from freelancing, was advancing Trump’s goals when he pushed for Ukraine to investigate the president’s political opponents.

Read more about Sondland's expected testimony.

Several Trump administration officials are scheduled to appear for depositions next week as part of the impeachment inquiry, according to two Hill staffers. They include:

• Kathryn Wheelbarger, acting assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.
• Philip Reeker, acting assistant secretary of European and Eurasian affairs, on Oct. 23.
• Alexander Vindman, director of European affairs at the National Security Council, on Oct. 24.
• Timothy Morrison, top Russia adviser at the National Security Council; and Suriya Jayanti, a foreign service officer in Kiev, on Oct. 25.

Acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor is already scheduled to testify before House investigators on Oct. 22.

Lawmakers will on Thursday morning at 9.30AM ET have the chance to ask Gordon Sondland about his involvement in Ukraine policy, at a highly anticipated closed-door hearing. Given Ukraine is not an E.U. member, members are likely to ask why the E.U. ambassador should be involved there at all.

Sondland, a wealthy Oregon hotelier and GOP mega-donor, contributed $1 million through four LLCs to Trump's inaugural fund and was appointed as the U.S. ambassador to the EU in June 2018. He had no formal diplomatic experience before Trump picked him for one of the country’s top ambassadorships.

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers plan to grill Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland on Thursday about a private discussion he had with top Ukrainian officials in the White House in which he explicitly mentioned the Ukrainian gas company linked to Hunter Biden, amid negotiations over granting Ukraine’s new president an audience with President Donald Trump, NBC News has learned.

Sondland’s meeting with the Ukrainians just steps away from the White House Situation Room came minutes after a larger West Wing meeting that included then-National Security Adviser John Bolton, who had been noncommittal about scheduling a meeting between Trump and new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Sondland directly contradicted Bolton by telling the Ukrainians that in fact, Trump was committed to meeting with Zelenskiy on the condition he open a corruption investigation, two people told about the matter tell NBC News.

Bolton abruptly ended the meeting.

Read more about the private discussion and Sondland's role here.

Below are excerpts from the opening statement made to Congress today by former Ambassador Michael McKinley, who recently resigned as Pompeo’s senior adviser, according to a former colleague familiar with the testimony:

"The timing of my resignation was the result of two overriding concerns: the failure, in my view, of the State Department to offer support to Foreign Service employees caught up in the Impeachment Inquiry on Ukraine; and, second, by what appears to be the utilization of our ambassadors overseas to advance domestic political objectives.

I was disturbed by the implication that foreign governments were being approached to procure negative information on political opponents. I was convinced that this would also have a serious impact on foreign service morale and the integrity of our work overseas.

Since I began my career in 1982, I have served my country and every President loyally. Under current circumstances, however, I could no longer look the other way as colleagues are denied the professional support and respect they deserve from us all."

Michael McKinley, the former top adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told Congressional impeachment investigators that his sudden resignation was, in part, due to Pompeo’s silence about the recall of Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, according to two people in the room for McKinley’s testimony.

After a phone call between President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in which the president disparaged Yovanovitch, McKinley asked Pompeo to write a "statement of support" for the former ambassador, but Pompeo remained silent, McKinley told Congressional investigators, according to a person in the room.

Trump called her "bad news" and sad that her "attitude towards me was far from the best” in a July 25 phone call with Zelenskiy, according to an abridged transcript released by the White House.

According to the person in the room, McKinley painted a picture of a State Department that was rebuilding after the tenure of the previous secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. But McKinley said that it disturbed him that officials working on Ukraine were being sidelined because of political pressures, according to a source in the room and a person familiar with his testimony.

He also cited a State Department inspector general report in August that found political appointees mistreated and intimidated civil servants in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, according to a person familiar with his testimony.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., said that McKinley in his testimony expressed strong support of his colleague Yovanovitch. "And that’s understandable," Meadows said.

At the time of his resignation, McKinley was a veteran State Department official, whose 37-year career included posts in Brazil, Afghanistan, Colombia and Peru.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., said that McKinley is one of several witnesses who is "helping to fill in the portrait of an official State Department process that was under attack basically by Trump and Giuliani."

WASHINGTON — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., went into detail Wednesday on how a Senate trial would go if the House impeaches President Donald Trump. 

“Under the impeachment rules of the Senate, we will take the matter up,” McConnell said at a weekly leadership news conference following a closed-door luncheon with Senate Republicans. “The chief justice will be in the chair. We will have to convene every day, six days out of seven at 12:30 or one o'clock in the afternoon. Senators will not be allowed to speak, which should be good therapy for a number of them. And we intend to do our constitutional responsibility.”

The Constitution provides the Senate with the power to try impeachments, acting as a court to consider evidence, hear witnesses and determine whether the impeached person should be convicted. A two-thirds vote of the Senate — 67 members — is required for conviction. Democrats, who have 47 members, would have a lot of convincing to do among Republicans, most of whom are defending the president, to reach that threshold.

McConnell claimed earlier in the news conference that House Democrats are “denying due process to the president,” which he said could be fixed if the House voted on the opening of the impeachment inquiry. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., however, made clear Tuesday night that she doesn’t plan to hold a vote given that the investigation is already underway.

Michael McKinley, who recently resigned as senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, testified to Congress on Wednesday as part of the House impeachment inquiry. Republicans have roundly criticized House Democrats for what they say is a secret process being carried out behind closed doors. What's happening behind the scenes? NBC News correspondent Geoff Bennett, NBC News national political reporter Josh Lederman and Washington Post White House reporter Ashley Parker join Katy Tur to discuss.

Acting U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor left Kyiv, Ukraine on Wednesday for Washington D.C. after House Democrats requested he appear for a Tuesday deposition in the investigation into President Trump’s alleged misconduct involving Ukraine, NBC News has confirmed.

In a packet of text messages released by House Democrats last week, Taylor on Sept. 9 remarked that it would be “crazy” to link Ukraine military assistance to help with Trump’s political campaign, something that was hinted at in the messages. "I think it’s crazy to withhold security assistance for help with a political campaign," Taylor said in a text.

Nearly five hours later, Sondland — a Republican donor who has no experience in diplomacy or foreign policy, responded after speaking with the president, writing, "Bill, I believe you are incorrect about President Trump’s intentions. The President has been crystal clear no quid pro quo's of any kind.”

Read more on what Democrats are hoping to learn from Taylor here.

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, told NBC News Wednesday that the Trump administration "needs to respond appropriately to subpoenas."

"I’m not going to get between the White House and the House as to that process, but it is essential that people respond to subpoenas that come from Congress," Romney said, responding to a question about the issue on Capitol Hill. 

This comes as Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, defied demands from Congress yesterday to turn over documents relating to Ukraine. In a Tuesday letter to the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said that he will not comply with a subpoena related to House Democrats' impeachment inquiry. 

Vice President Mike Pence, while not subpoenaed, also rejected congressional requests for documents.

Romney, who most recently condemned the president on Twitter for his “brazen and unprecedented appeal to China and to Ukraine," was one of the first Republican senators to denounce Trump's call on foreign governments to investigate his political opponents. 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper will not comply with a subpoena from House Democrats related to their impeachment inquiry, according to a letter sent Tuesday to Democratic leadership from the Department of Defense.

In the letter to the chairmen of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, the Pentagon cites a “number of legal and practical concerns” as their reason for not complying. They include the House not officially voting to authorize an impeachment inquiry and that some of the information the House is requesting “appears to consist of confidential Executive Branch communications that are potentially protected by executive privilege.”

Read more here.

A senior administration official confirms that the White House is conducting an internal review of the process surrounding that July 25th phone call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

The New York Times first reported the review and adds that it’s centering in on why a deputy White House counsel, John Eisenberg, "placed a rough transcript of the call in a computer system typically reserved for the country’s most closely guarded secrets."

Members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday tried to view a transcript of the closed-door deposition earlier this month with former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker in a classified area on Capitol Hill. 

Freedom Caucus Chairman Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., tweeted a photo of him and some of his colleagues heading to that area. 

Rep. Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, told reporters that they were not able to see the transcript — though he said they were told Tuesday that they would be able to read it at noon — and are waiting for staff. 

Volker made an unexpected return to the hill Wednesday morning to review the transcript of his more than nine-hour testimony before three House congressional committees on October 3. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told reporters Tuesday that Democrats would eventually make transcripts of the depositions public. 

Two senior law enforcement officials say that David Correia, one of the four people indicted in an alleged scheme to funnel foreign money and violate FEC laws, was taken into custody after arriving at New York's JFK airport this morning.

Correia and another man were charged last week along with Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman in a scheme to "circumvent the federal laws against foreign influence," according to court documents.

Parnas and Fruman, who are associates of Rudy Giuliani, were previously taken into custody, along with a fourth man, Andrew Kukushkin.

Law enforcement officials say that Parnas and Fruman had booked a one-way ticket to Europe and were taken into custody at Dulles airport.

Read key developments in the investigation of President Donald Trump here.

WASHINGTON — Gallup is out with a new poll Wednesday that shows a slight majority of Americans favoring Trump’s impeachment and removal from office.

Currently, 52 percent say Trump should be impeached and removed compared to 46 percent who say he should not be. Gallup notes that these results are roughly the opposite of what they found in June when the same question was asked in the context of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. 

The poll also shows that American’s approval for Congress has increased to 25 percent compared to 18 percent back in September, prior to when House Democrats launched the impeachment inquiry.

A former senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Michael McKinley, is expected to appear in a closed impeachment inquiry session Wednesday. McKinley, a seasoned foreign service officer, stood down last week.

Wednesday also marks the subpoena deadlines for Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to turn over documents. Both men — associates of Rudy Giuliani who were arrested on alleged campaign finance allegations —  are being held in detention in Virginia until they each secure a $1 million bond.

State Department official George Kent told lawmakers in a closed-door deposition Tuesday that acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney appointed three other Trump administration officials to spearhead the president's efforts in Ukraine.

According to Rep. Gerry Connolly, D-Va., who was present for the deposition, Kent testified that Mulvaney oversaw a meeting where he sidelined State Department officials and tapped three political appointees — Energy Secretary Rick Perry, European Ambassador Gordon Sondland and special envoy Kurt Volker — to oversee Ukraine policy for the United States.

Kent, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State who worked on Ukraine and five other countries, told congressional investigators that the trio called themselves “the three amigos” and elbowed all the other officials at State out of the way, according to Connolly.

Read more about Kent's testimony here.

Signaling that Democrats won’t cave to GOP demands, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that the House will not hold a formal floor vote on their impeachment inquiry into President Donald trump "at this time."

"There is no requirement that we have a vote. So at this time, we will not be having a vote," Pelosi told reporters on Capitol Hill following a brief closed-door Democratic caucus meeting. "And I’m very pleased with the thoughtfulness of our caucus in terms of being supportive of the path that we are on in terms of fairness, in terms of seeking the truth, in terms of upholding the Constitution of the United States."

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who joined her at the news conference, echoed her remarks and said that the Constitution is “very clear” that an initial vote is not required.

Read more on the news conference here.

Former Texas Rep. Pete Sessions said that he is cooperating with Manhattan prosecutors in a case that relates to Rudy Giuliani and his associates.

"Mr. Sessions is cooperating with the US Attorney from the Southern District of New York and will be providing documents to their office related to this matter over the next couple of weeks as requested," a spokesman for Sessions said. 

Vice President Mike Pence’s office Tuesday said it will not comply with a request from the House to turn over documents related to President Donald Trump's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

In a letter to the chairman of the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees, Pence counsel Matthew Morgan called the request part of a “self-proclaimed impeachment inquiry,” noting that the House of Representatives has not yet taken a vote to open the inquiry.

Those chairmen sent Pence a request on October 4 asking for documents and communications pertaining to the phone call the withholding of military and security aid to Ukraine.

Read more here.

The White House Office of Management and Budget Office will not comply with subpoenas from House impeachment investigators, according to an administration official.

The White House and OMB Director Russ Vought have made it clear they are not participating in the impeachment process, the official said.

"We will continue to not participate in this process which is not designed to get to the truth," Vought told Fox News in an interview last week. "It is designed to relitigate the last election and influence the next election. OMB spends every day trying to have less spending and have more deregulatory initiatives on behalf of what the president promised the American people and we're trying to keep those promises."

House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Monday that "there have been real breaks, significant breaks in the White House firewall" despite the Trump administration's efforts to stonewall the impeachment inquiry.

But Schiff said he and his Democratic colleagues "fully expect on things that are more within" the administration's "control, they will stonewall us."

Schiff praised ousted U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch, former Trump Russia aide Fiona Hill and others who have obeyed House subpoenas. On Tuesday, Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani told ABC News he did not plan to comply with the subpoena aimed at his work in Ukraine. 

Rudy Giuliani won't comply with a congressional subpoena as part of the House impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, an attorney for Giuliani told House investigators in a letter on Tuesday.

Giuliani, the president's personal lawyer, had been subpoenaed for documents related to his work in Ukraine, which has come under intense scrutiny after Trump asked the Ukrainian president to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Last week, two of Giuliani's business associates who had been assisting him in his Ukrainian venture were arrested on campaign-finance charges.

Jon Sale, Giuliani's attorney for purposes of handling the subpoena, wrote that the former New York City mayor "will not participate because this appears to be an unconstitutional, baseless, and illegitimate 'impeachment inquiry.'" Sale called the subpoena "overbroad, unduly burdensome, and seeks documents beyond the scope of legitimate inquiry."

Read more here.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump brought up the impeachment inquiry during an event in the Rose Garden on Tuesday afternoon honoring the 2019 Stanley Cup champions, the St. Louis Blues. 

Ticking off a number of trade negotiations — from Japan to Mexico to China — Trump lamented that despite his efforts, such deals may never get congressional approval.

"I doubt they will because it's Nancy Pelosi," Trump said of the potential blockage in Congress. "They're too busy working on impeachment."

"And by the way, we just hit the greatest economy we've ever had. 'Let's impeach the president. Isn't that a good idea?'” Trump continued, mocking House Democrats. "I wouldn't worry about it, fellas," he added.

Maine Sen. Susan Collins, a moderate Republican in a blue state, is facing a potential lose-lose situation on impeachment, according to a new poll Tuesday of what is expected to be one of next year's most competitive Senate races. 

Collins has so far stayed neutral on the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump, but there is peril for her no matter which side she chooses, according to a new survey from Democratic-leaning Public Policy Polling, one of the few polls of the race so far.

If Collins supports impeachment, her already soft numbers with Republicans weaken dramatically: Just 35 of Republicans say they would want to re-nominate Collins, while 55 percent said they would prefer a different GOP candidate. But if Collins opposes impeachment, she would lose some of her cross-over support from Democrats, and her 3 point deficit against a generic Democratic candidate would grow to 7 percentage points.

Collins' leading Democratic opponent, state House Speaker Sara Gideon, announced raising $3.2 million in the third quarter of the year Tuesday, while Collins said her campaign raised less than that -- $2.1 million -- but has $7.1 million in the back.

NBC News wrote about the Collins race and impeachment earlier this month.

WASHINGTON — House Democratic leaders are reaching out to members in swing districts to gauge their support for an official vote on the House floor to open an impeachment inquiry, two sources told NBC News.

Leadership is contacting the most vulnerable members first and then will discuss with the larger caucus as early as tonight at their 6:00 pm ET caucus meeting.

House Republicans and the White House have been demanding an official vote to open an inquiry. The White House has said it won't cooperate with Democrats demands until they do.  

While this would be a significant development to make the inquiry more official, Democrats have argued that it is not necessary as deemed by the Constitution.

Republicans would like a vote to officially open the inquiry because it could give them more rights, including subpoena power.

Three quarters of all college students support the impeachment inquiry, according to a new poll out today from Axios/College Reaction Poll.

That includes 97 percent of college Democrats and a large majority of Independents, 76 percent. 

But only about one in five, or 22 percent, of college Republicans favor the inquiry. 

Despite the party polarization, college students are still more likely than adults to support impeachment. 

And those numbers are up across all party affiliations from their last poll in May, with the biggest movement among Independents, +32 percent, who now support impeachment as much as Democrats did 3 months ago.

Former national security adviser John Bolton was so disturbed by the efforts to get the Ukrainians to investigate President Donald Trump’s political opponents that he called it a “drug deal,” former White House official Fiona Hill reportedly told Congress on Monday.

Hill, the former top Europe expert in Trump’s White House, testified that Bolton told her over the summer that he wanted no part of the effort, which he said involved acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, a person in the room for Hill’s testimony told NBC News.

Bolton also was said to have referred to Rudy Giuliani as a "hand grenade."

Click here to read more.

House committees are today set to hear from George Kent, the State Department official responsible for Ukraine, who was among those raising red flags about Rudy Giuliani’s smear campaign against ousted U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

On Wednesday, House investigators will interview with Michael McKinley, the former de facto chief of staff to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who resigned over what was seen as Pompeo’s failure to support career officials  targeted in the Ukraine controversy.

House investigators plan to round out the week by calling in Laura Cooper, a career Defense Department official responsible for Russia and Ukraine policy. She’s expected to offer insight regarding the withheld military aid — the first witness to focus on the aid itself.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will tell Congress on Thursday that he thought former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch was "great" and that he has nothing negative to say about her job performance, despite her ouster by President Donald Trump.

A person with knowledge of Sondland’s testimony tells NBC News that Yovanovitch was an able and professional diplomat, and that he had no issues with her whatsoever. The person spoke to NBC News on the condition of anonymity.

Click here to read the full story from NBC News.

After leaving the closed door deposition with Fiona Hill, Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., spoke to reporters on camera. When asked about releasing transcripts he said "at an appropriate time in the future they will be released." He added "these are not hearings. They are depositions."

Heck also said Republicans "are darn lucky these weren’t public."

Two officials working on the impeachment inquiry tell NBC News that a former top adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who resigned last week, is expected appear in a closed session with the House committees on Wednesday. The officials outlined the schedule ahead as follows:

Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent is expected to appear in closed session on Tuesday.

Former Senior Advisor to the Secretary of State Ambassador P. Michael McKinley is expected to appear in closed session on Wednesday.

Ambassador Sondland has been subpoenaed for Thursday.

Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper is expected to appear in closed session on Friday.

WASHINGTON — The Senate is back in session Tuesday after a two-week break, and a lot has happened in that time, including President Trump asking China to investigate the Bidens. We’re watching whether enough Republicans support a trial to stop articles of impeachment from being quickly dismissed.

The 53 members of the party would need only three of their number to vote against a dismissal motion to keep a trial going (Vice President Mike Pence would not preside over an impeachment trial to break a tie), and with senators speaking out about Trump’s requests of Ukraine and China, that's a realistic possibility.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., who is retiring and has at times been critical of the President, gave a bit of a preview of how centrist Republicans could land on the question of impeachment. He released a statement last week saying, “It’s inappropriate for the president to be talking with foreign governments about investigating his political opponents, but impeachment would be a mistake. An election, which  is just around the corner, is the right way to decide who should be president."

It will be interesting to see if this becomes the way Senate Republicans who are critical of the president’s actions navigate these waters. With statements like that, it’s hard to see how Democrats would ever get 20 Republicans to join them to convict. 

President Donald Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani on Monday denied being involved with a Ukrainian oligarch whose ethical issues have dovetailed the ongoing impeachment inquiry into the president.

Giuliani also told NBC News he was not planning on visiting Dmitry Firtash, who is currently wanted on corruption charges in the U.S., during a trip to Vienna he planned last week. 

Read what else Giuliani had to say in this NBC News story.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz tried to sit in on the closed door testimony of Trump's former Russia aide Fiona Hill, but because he is not a member of any the committees interviewing Hill, he was asked to leave by the House parliamentarian. He wouldn’t say if he would try to come to any other depositions this week.

He spoke to reporters after the ordeal:

Multiple sources familiar with the matter tell NBC News the committees leading the impeachment inquiry have scheduled the following additional depositions for this week:

Oct. 15: George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state responsible for Ukraine.

Oct. 17: State Department counselor T. Ulrich Brechbuhl.

As of this writing, it’s unlikely that Kent and Brechbuhl will appear as scheduled given White House efforts to block the testimony of current Trump administration officials.

Here's the House impeachment inquiry deposition and deadline schedule for the rest of the week.

Happening today

Fiona Hill, Trump's former top Russia adviser, appears for a closed deposition.

Tuesday

• House returns from recess.
• Subpoena deadline for Rudy Giuliani to turn over documents.
• Subpoena deadlines for Defense Secretary Mark Esper and acting Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought to turn over documents.
• Request deadline for the office of Vice President Mike Pence to turn over documents.

Wednesday

• Subpoena deadlines for Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman to turn over documents.

Thursday 

• Ambassador to the E.U. Gordon Sondland agrees to appear and testify for closed-door deposition.

Friday

• Subpoena deadline for acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney to turn over documents.
• Subpoena deadline for Energy Secretary Rick Perry to turn over documents.

President Donald Trump attacked House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., again on Monday morning over his characterization of Trump's July phone call with the newly elected president of Ukraine — a conversation that figures at the center of the House impeachment inquiry.

Trump again said Schiff's comments at a hearing with the acting director of national intelligence last month "fraudulently" fabricated Trump's statements during the call. He also said the whistleblower who filed an official complaint about the call had gotten his conversation with the Ukrainian president "sooo wrong."

NBC News has reported that Schiff himself described his opening remarks at the hearing as a "parody" and that some of his phrasing matches the White House's own summary of what Trump said.

Fiona Hill, who until August served as President Donald Trump's top Russia analyst, is set to testify to the House privately on Monday under subpoena as part of the impeachment inquiry into the president.

Hill plans to tell Congress that Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani and U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland circumvented the administration to pursue a shadow foreign policy on Ukraine, a person familiar with her expected testimony told NBC News last week.

A former senior White House official told NBC News that Hill's appearance has caused concern among those close to Trump because she played a central role in the administration's Russian and Ukrainian policy. Read more about her expected testimony.

U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland will testify to Congress this week that he did not know why United States military assistance to Ukraine was held up nor who ordered it, according to a person with knowledge of Sondland’s testimony.

Sondland, who is under subpoena from the House, plans to testify before the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry on Thursday. Read more about his expected testimony.

Rep. Jeff Van Drew has become perhaps the most vocal opponent in his party to removing President Donald Trump — one of just seven House Democrats holding back support for the impeachment inquiry.

Read why Van Drew, D-N.J., hasn't been shy about explaining his position.

No one understands the political perils of impeaching a president quite like Rep. Adam Schiff. The California Democrat won a House seat in 2000 by defeating a Republican who had become nationally prominent as a House manager of President Bill Clinton's impeachment.

Read Jonathan Allen's analysis of why House Democrats think Schiff, now the Intelligence Committee chairman, is the right person to lead the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.