Article snippet: House Democrats on Monday released the first transcripts from their closed-door hearings. The transcripts are the first full public accounting of testimony from former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch and former top aide to Secretary of State MORE, Michael McKinley. They largely focused on the sequence of events that led to the recalling of Yovanovitch back to the United States. The U.S. ambassador was seen as insufficiently loyal to Trump, and was the subject of a campaign by the White House and its allies to undermine her. Here are five takeaways from the transcripts. Witnesses describe a heavily politicized environment at State Testimony from both officials underscored the reluctance by the State Department to issue a public show of support for Yovanovitch as she came under fire from the president’s allies. The two officials also described an environment in which people constantly worried about a rogue tweet from Trump’s Twitter account. Yovanovitch said State Department officials were cautious about issuing statements supporting her because they feared it could be “undermined” by Trump. “What I was told was that there was concern that the rug would be pulled out from under the State Department if they put out something publicly,” she said. Yovanovitch tried to warn the State Department that remaining silent would not be “sustainable.” “If you have the president's son saying, you know, ‘We need to pull these clowns,’ or however he referred to me, ... Link to the full article to read more