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For the first time in front of live cameras, US lawmakers have had the opportunity to question witnesses in the impeachment hearing of Donald Trump.

Acting US Ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and State Department official George Kent both described an "irregular" channel led by Trump allies to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens in exchange for a White House meeting and US military aid.

Taylor described how one of his assistants overheard a call between US Ambassador to the EU Gordon Sondland in which Trump said he did not care about Ukraine and just wanted the country to probe the Bidens. The existence of this call between Trump and Sondland had not been previously disclosed in earlier testimony. In a White House press conference later, Trump disavows any knowledge of such a call.

On Friday, recalled US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch will take the stand for phase two of the televised impeachment hearings.

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In a news conference with the Turkish leader, Trump says he doesn't know anything about the reported call between him and Sondland that was revealed in today's testimony.

"I know nothing about that. First time I've heard it," says Trump.

He adds: "I don't recall. Not at all. Not even a little bit."

Trump was just asked about the impeachment hearing during his press conference with the Turkish leader.

He took the first question from the pro-Trump One America News Network.

"You're talking about the witch hunt, is that what you mean?" the president said. "I hear it's a joke."

Noting that he did not have time to watch the hearing, he said: "This is a sham, it shouldn’t be allowed."

He again maintains his call with Zelensky was "perfect".

"I'm gonna find out who's the whistleblower, because the whistleblower gave a lot of very incorrect information about my call," Trump said.

The president added that he will be releasing a second call, presumably with Zelensky, "which actually was the first of the two" on Thursday.

Trump said he's heard the congressional evidence was just "all third-hand information, nothing direct at all. Can't be direct, because I never said it."

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The US president is now holding a joint press conference at the White House with his guest, Turkey’s leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Impeachment has not come up. So far…

Image source, Reuters

The panel's top Democrat concluded the hearing by denying he knows the identity of the whistleblower or has met with him.

Leaving the hearing, Republican congressman Jim Jordan claimed Schiff has in fact met with the whistleblower, and is the only member of the committee to do so.

"You are the only member who knows who that individual is," Jordan accused Schiff during the hearing.

Schiff said Jordan had made "a false statement".

That is only one of the many facts that are disputed in this complex impeachment inquiry.

Expect this clip to run and run on conservative outlets attacking the impeachment inquiry.

Republicans seeking to undercut the case against Trump pointed out today that Taylor did not himself hear the Trump-Zelensky call, and has never met Trump or his chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney.

But Mike Quigley, an Illinois Democrat, told the hearing: "I think the American public needs to be reminded that countless people have been convicted on hearsay because the courts have routinely allowed and created, needed exceptions to hearsay.

"Hearsay can be much better evidence than direct, as we have learned in painful instances and it’s certainly valid in this instance."

Anthony Zurcher
BBC North America reporter

At the beginning of today's hearing US Ambassador to Ukraine Bill Taylor dropped a bombshell that appears set to become a major impeachment plot twist.

According to Taylor, his aide overheard a call between Trump and EU Ambassador Gordon Sondland one day after the call between the US and Ukrainian presidents.

Trump asked about "the investigations" - and Sondland replied that Ukraine was ready to move forward, he said.

Sondland then told Taylor's aide that the president cared more about the investigation of the Bidens than anything else involving Ukraine.

This phone call may tie Trump to allegations of a quid pro quo.

Read more here:

Impeachment: How an overheard phone call could damage Trump

The committee is taking a brief recess, and the two witnesses have now left the room.

Lawmakers on the committee are staying behind to debate a motion from a Republican congressman which would require the anonymous whistleblower (who first exposed the Trump-Zelensky call) to testify.

Image source, Olivier Douliery/AFP/Getty Images

Bill Taylor testifies he sent a first-person cable directly to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to express his concerns about military aid being withheld from Ukraine.

Taylor is asked how many times he has sent a message directly to America's top diplomat in a career spanning decades.

He says only once - this time.

Taylor says he did not receive a reply.

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A Democratic congressman asks the witnesses about Trump's repeated insistence that his phone call with the Ukrainian leader was "perfect".

Raja Krishnamoorthi, of Illinois, says: "You don't believe the July 25th call was perfect, do you?"

After a pause, George Kent says: "I think some of the language in the call gave cause for concern."

Bill Taylor: "I agree."

The two witnesses are asked to describe Rudy Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine and whether they were in the US national interest.

Both men say he was using an "irregular" channel that ran counter to US foreign policy.

"I believe he was looking to dig up political dirt on a potential rival in the next election cycle," says Kent about Giuliani.

Taylor says he agrees with that assessment.

If Trump wants to attack the Bidens, "he's free to do it" says Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat.

"It's all fair and square in the campaign," he says.

"He's just not free to change our foreign policy" to benefit his campaign.

The question, he says, is whether or not Trump's request that Ukraine investigate the Bidens was for his own benefit, or in the US national interest.

Republican Jim Jordan puts on the record recently circulated claims about the background of the whistleblower who filed the complaint over Trump's call with his Ukrainian counterpart.

Referring to the unnamed official as "he", Jordan said the whistleblower was biased against Trump and "worked with Joe Biden".

Image source, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Image source, Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

Who's not watching?

• Trump told reporters he's too busy to watch. He's hosting the Turkish president at the White House today.
• A spokesman for Biden says he's busy "doing his [job]. Beating Trump".
• "We’ll get to it soon enough," said Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

Who's watching?

• Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is watching from her Capitol Hill office, according to an aide.

Former State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki joked that the visiting Turkish leader is not yet on the record.

Democrat Eric Swalwell asks the witnesses if they were, as the president has claimed, "Never Trumpers" (conservatives opposed to Trump).

Kent: "I am a career professional who serves whatever president is duly elected and carries out the foreign policies of that president. I've done that for 27 years."

Taylor, asked the same question, responds: "No, sir."