House Judiciary names 4 legal scholars as witnesses for impeachment hearing

The House Judiciary Committee on Monday released the names of the four legal scholars who will serve as witnesses for its first impeachment hearing on Wednesday at 10 a.m.

The big picture: The hearing will focus on the constitutional grounds for impeachment and will examine whether President Trump's actions toward Ukraine qualify as high crimes and misdemeanors. Trump's lawyers said in a letter Monday that they will not participate in the hearing, but left open the possibility that they will send counsel to represent the president in future hearings that center on the actual substance of the Ukraine allegations.

The witnesses:

• Noah Feldman
• Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law and Director, Julis-Rabinowitz Program on Jewish and Israeli Law
• Harvard Law School
• Pamela S. Karlan 
• Kenneth and Harle Montgomery Professor of Public Interest Law and Co-Director, Supreme Court Litigation Clinic
• Stanford Law School
• Michael Gerhardt 
• Burton Craige Distinguished Professor of Jurisprudence
• The University of North Carolina School of Law
• Jonathan Turley
• J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law
• The George Washington University Law School

Go deeper: What to expect from the next phase of impeachment