Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas says Russia is waging a “shadow war” against the West.

Mark Reinstein/Corbis Historical/Getty Images via CNN(CNN) - House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff on Wednesday announced impeachment hearings will begin next week as Democrats prepare to take their case against President Donald Trump to the public. Schiff, a California Democrat, said that three witnesses will testify next week: US diplomat Bill Taylor and State Department official George Kent will appear on next Wednesday, and former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch is testifying next Friday. In his 15-page opening statement, Taylor explained how he was told that "everything" Ukraine wanted was conditioned on the investigation. The public hearings will be conducted just by the House Intelligence Committee. Under rules passed by the House last week, both Democrats and Republicans will 45-minute blocks to question witnesses in which staff attorneys can participate.

WASHINGTON (CNN) - Michael McKinley, the former senior adviser to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, told lawmakers last month that one senior State Department official told him he felt "bullied" by the department to not comply fully with the congressional impeachment inquiry, according to a transcript of McKinley's comments released Monday. Kent told McKinley that Kent had been questioning why the document requests from Congress were not being delivered to him from higher-ups at the State Department on a "timely basis." "He challenged the deadline they were working against," McKinley recalled Kent telling him. McKinley said he was "absolutely appalled" that State was declaring that there would be no financial support for officials' private counsel. McKinley testified it was clear that Kent "felt that he was being bullied" and that he took very seriously the fact that Kent submitted a memo saying as much to the State Department file.

(CNN) - President Donald Trump's urging of Ukraine's President to investigate political rivals coincided with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban pushing a disparaging view of the country to Trump, The Washington Post reported on Monday. George Kent, the deputy assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, described Putin and Orban's influence during closed-door testimony to House investigators last week, US officials told the Post. Trump spoke repeatedly with both Putin and Orban this spring and summer following Zelensky's election in late April, according to the paper. Trump and Putin also met during a June global summit and spoke days after Trump's July call with Zelensky, per the Post. A key facilitator in Trump and Orban's interactions was acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who overruled national security officials in approving the Hungarian leader's visit, officials told the Post.

Giuliani has previously told CNN he wanted to interview Shokin in person because the Ukrainian promised to reveal dirt on Democrats. Kent told congressional investigators the State Department had objected to the request, and State did not grant the visa. Shokin's visa was never granted, although Giuliani eventually spoke with Shokin over Skype. The State Department inspector general eventually turned the documents over to congressional investigators. Shokin has claimed, Giuliani has told CNN, that Biden pushed for his removal in order to stop an investigation into Burisma.

(CNN) - Career diplomat George Kent told congressional investigators earlier this week he had voiced concerns in early 2015 about former Vice President Joe Biden's son Hunter working for a Ukrainian natural gas company, the Washington Post reported Friday. Andrew Bates, a spokesman for Joe Biden's presidential campaign, defended the former vice president's conduct in Ukraine. The aide recalled Hunter's position first surfacing as an issue in December 2015 when it was referenced in media reports of Joe Biden's anti-corruption speech. Hunter Biden's role on the board was publicly announced in 2014, per the Post. The aide said "in the aggregate (Hunter's job) didn't have any discernible effect," and asserted that Beau Biden's diagnosis, while serious, barely affected Joe Biden's work as vice president.

Drew Angerer/2017 Getty Images(CNN) - State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary George Kent told lawmakers on Tuesday that he had been told by a supervisor to lie low after he raised complaints about Rudy Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine undermining US foreign policy, according to Democratic Rep. Gerry Connolly, a senior member of the House Oversight Committee. Connolly, a Virginia lawmaker, reported that Kent had said Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine going around the State Department "undermined 28 years of US efforts to try to promote the rule of law in Ukraine." Kent told lawmakers he was responsible for six countries, including Ukraine. After he was warned to lie low, he said, he took time off to attend his daughter's wedding and go hiking in Maine, according to Connolly. The White House's former top Russia adviser Fiona Hill had told the committees on Monday that former national security adviser John Bolton warned that Giuliani was like a "hand grenade."

"I wouldn't worry about it, fellas, I wouldn't worry about it," Trump joked alongside Stanley Cup champions the St. Louis Blues. Inside the West Wing, sources say, there is escalating concern about administration witnesses who are giving depositions on Capitol Hill. The letter cited White House counsel's previous letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioning the legitimacy of the impeachment inquiry, saying the process "calls into question your commitment to fundamental fairness and due process rights." Morgan wrote in a letter to House Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Eliot Engel, and House Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff. There is no White House counsel present in the room and officials are not given transcripts or readouts after they leave, one person told CNN.

Getty Images(CNN) - Another career diplomat caught in the tangles of the Ukraine scandal is slated to appear as the latest witness in the House Democrats growing impeachment inquiry. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs George Kent is scheduled to testify to the House Intelligence, Foreign Affairs and Oversight committees on Tuesday. Kent, who has been in the foreign service since 1992, currently oversees policy for a number of eastern European nations, including Ukraine. Former State Department official Molly Montgomery said Kent "is professional and one of the US government's foremost experts on Ukraine." Both of the former prosecutors have been in communication with Giuliani, according to documents given to Congress by the State Department inspector general.