State Department official George Kent testified in today's impeachment hearing that Rudy Giuliani 'undermined' US national security with 'politically-motivated investigations' in Ukraine

Associated Press/Andrew Harnik

Career Foreign Service officer George Kent, testifies before the House Intelligence Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2019.

• George Kent, deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, was the first witness to testify in Wednesday's public impeachment inquiry hearings.
• Kent testified that Rudy Giuliani, President Donald Trump's personal lawyer, hurt US-Ukrainian relations with "politically-motivated investigations." 
• He accused Giuliani of "leveraging [Ukrainian] President Zelensky's desire for a White House meeting" to demand investigations into former Vice President Joe Biden and his son. 
• Kent added "corrupt former prosecutors" in Ukraine peddled "false information" to Giuliani and others in order "to exact revenge against those who had exposed their misconduct, including US diplomats."
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George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, testified in the first day of impeachment hearings on Wednesday that the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, was hurting US-Ukrainian relations with "politically-motivated investigations." 

Kent said that "over the course of 2018 and 2019" he became "increasingly aware" of a "smear campaign" directed by Giuliani and his Ukrainian allies, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, against then-US ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.

Kent also testified that "corrupt former prosecutors" in Ukraine peddled "false information" to Giuliani and others in order "to exact revenge against those who had exposed their misconduct, including US diplomats."

"In mid-August, it became clear to me that Giuliani's efforts to gin up politically-motivated investigations were now infecting US engagement with Ukraine, leveraging President Zelensky's desire for a White House meeting," Kent said. 

He concluded, "In my opinion, those attacks undermined US and Ukrainian national interests and damaged our critical bilateral relationship."

Kent and others have testified that Yovanovitch was recalled by the president based on false allegations and conspiracy theories pushed by Giuliani, who was furious Yovanovitch would not help him pressure Ukraine for dirt on the Bidens.