Top WH Russia Adviser Quits Ahead of Impeachment Hearing

By Staff, Agencies

Tim Morrison, a top Russia and Europe adviser at the US national Security Council [NSC], quit his job ahead of an impeachment hearing, according to a senior US official quoted by media on Wednesday.

His testimony slated for Thursday, Morrison is set to be the first political appointee from the White House to speak before the lawmakers looking into the Trump-Ukraine scandal.

His name came up earlier in an explosive testimony by William Taylor, acting US envoy to Kiev, who said he first learned that the US aid to Ukraine could be conditioned on Kiev's public pledge to investigate Biden from Morrison.

Morrison was brought aboard the NSC by John Bolton, former US National Security adviser, who has also been requested to testify.

His lawyer said, however, that Bolton will not appear before the probe voluntarily, without a subpoena.

In a separate development, the US House is expected to vote Thursday on formalizing the impeachment probe, and set its next phase – which would have open evidentiary hearings that Trump or his lawyers could take part in – ahead of drawing up articles of impeachment.

President Trump is accused of pressuring his Ukrainian counterpart Volodimir Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden, one of the front-runners in the Democratic race, and his son Hunter Biden, using some $400 million of US aid as leverage.