WASHINGTON -- A group of House Republicans barged into a secure room at the Capitol on Wednesday where the latest witness in the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry was set to testify, temporarily shutting down the proceedings.
The disruption delayed private testimony from Laura Cooper, the Pentagon official who oversees Ukraine policy, whom lawmakers planned to ask about the White House's decision to withhold military aid for several months over the summer.
Earlier Wednesday, President Donald Trump lashed out anew at "terrible" Democrats a day after damaging testimony from a key diplomat in the Ukraine controversy. William Taylor, the acting U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, had testified Tuesday that Trump wanted military aid to Ukraine linked to the country's willingness to investigate the 2016 election and former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.
Trump took to Twitter to assail Taylor and his lawyer John Bellinger -- and to offer encouragement to Republican protesters.
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"Never Trumper Republican John Bellinger, represents Never Trumper Diplomat Bill Taylor (who I don't know), in testimony before Congress!" the president wrote. "Do Nothing Democrats allow Republicans Zero Representation, Zero due process, and Zero Transparency."
About two-dozen Trump allies stormed a room in the Capitol basement where three investigative committees were supposed to hear testimony from Cooper. The interview began roughly five hours behind schedule, after a security check by Capitol officials.
A shouting match began between Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas, and some Democrats in the room as House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., left to consult with the sergeant at arms, according to Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va., who witnessed the episode.
"The members have just had it, and they want to be able to see and represent their constituents and find out what's going on," said Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio, the top Republican on the House Oversight and Reform panel. That committee is one of the three leading the investigation, and its members are allowed into the closed hearings.
Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., said she had just walked into the room when the Republican lawmakers blew past Capitol police officers and Democratic staff members. The staff member who was checking identification at the entrance was "basically overcome" by the Republicans, she said.
"Literally some of them were just screaming about the president and what we're doing to him and that we have nothing and just all things that were supportive of the president," Wasserman Schultz said.
Democrats decried the Republican shutdown of Wednesday's planned testimony, dismissing it as a stunt.
"It's totally inappropriate," said Rep. Harley Rouda, D-Calif., who watched the episode unfold. "When the facts are against you, when the law is against you ... you're left arguing process."
Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., called the Republicans' actions "a violation of House rules."
"They can't just crash into this," Lieu said.
"The president's allies in Congress are trying to make it even more difficult for these witnesses to cooperate," Schiff said.
Later Wednesday, when the deposition began, Cooper answered questions from lawmakers and staff members in response to a subpoena, an official working on the impeachment inquiry said. She explained to lawmakers the process of distributing military aid and was asked whether the appropriate steps were followed on Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the interview.
Both the official working on the impeachment inquiry and the person familiar with the interview spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the closed testimony.
ARKANSAS' DELEGATION
None of Arkansas' Republican House members -- Reps. Steve Womack, Bruce Westerman, Rick Crawford and French Hill -- were among the group that stormed the room Wednesday.
As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, Crawford is entitled to witness the proceedings.
In an interview a week ago, Crawford said he hadn't been present for many of the interviews. "I don't have time to fool around with this sham impeachment nonsense, so I'm going about my business," he said. "Not to be trite here, but we've got bigger fish to fry."
On Wednesday, Crawford's spokesman, Sara Robertson, said he still believes the process should be more transparent.
"It shouldn't be behind closed doors. Most impeachment processes haven't been," she said. "He thinks it should be out front and in the open."
Democrats deny that Republicans are being treated unfairly, noting that they have had equal time to question witnesses and full access to the meetings. Schiff says closed hearings are necessary to prevent witnesses from concealing the truth and has promised to release the transcripts when it will not affect the investigation.
They also said the Republicans -- several of whom do not sit on one of the three committees -- compromised security at Wednesday's closed deposition. The interviews are being held in what is called a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility, or SCIF, which is a secure room where members can hear classified information.
Several Republicans appeared to be tweeting from the secure room. North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker tweeted: "UPDATE: We are in the SCIF and every GOP Member is quietly listening."
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, alleged that Republicans "intentionally brought their electronic devices" into the secure area, violating congressional rules and the oath they take to gain access to classified information.
The "unprecedented breach of security raises serious concerns" for committee chairmen who maintain secure facilities in the Capitol, Thompson wrote in a letter to the House sergeant at arms asking for action to be taken against members of Congress involved in the breach.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized his Republican colleagues for the tactic, calling them "nuts" to make a "run on the SCIF."
"That's not the way to do it," he said. Graham later tweeted that he initially believed Republicans had taken the room by force and that it was actually a "peaceful protest," adding that his House GOP colleagues had "good reason to be upset."
The Republicans who took part in the protest were unbowed. Rep. Steve Scalise, the No. 2 House Republican, said Democrats are running a "Soviet-style process" that should "not be allowed in the United States of America."
"We're not going to be bullied," he said.
ZELENSKIY WARY
Separately, sources told The Associated Press that more than two months before the phone call that launched the impeachment inquiry, Ukraine's newly elected leader was already worried about pressure from the U.S. president to investigate the Bidens.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy gathered a small group of advisers on May 7 for a meeting that was supposed to be about his nation's energy needs. Instead, the group spent most of the three-hour discussion talking about how to navigate the insistence from Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, for a probe and how to avoid becoming entangled in the American elections, according to three people familiar with the details of the meeting.
They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the diplomatic sensitivity of the issue, which has roiled U.S.-Ukrainian relations.
The meeting came before Zelenskiy was inaugurated but about two weeks after Trump called to offer his congratulations on the night of the Ukrainian leader's April 21 election.
The full details of what the two leaders discussed in that Easter Sunday phone call have never been publicly disclosed, and it is not clear whether Trump explicitly asked for an investigation of the Bidens.
The three people's recollections differ on whether Zelenskiy specifically cited that first call with Trump as the source of his unease. But their accounts all show that the Ukrainian president-elect was wary of Trump's push for an investigation into the former vice president and his son Hunter's business dealings.
The May 7 meeting included two of his top aides, Andriy Yermak and Andriy Bogdan, the people said. Also in the room was Andriy Kobolyev, head of the state-owned natural gas company Naftogaz, and Amos Hochstein, an American who sits on the Ukrainian company's supervisory board. Hochstein is a former diplomat who advised Biden on Ukraine matters during the Obama administration.
Zelenskiy's office did not respond to messages Wednesday seeking comment. The White House would not comment on whether Trump demanded an investigation in the April 21 call.
Trump has said he would release a transcript of the first call, but the White House had no comment Wednesday on when, or if, that will happen.
After news broke that a White House whistleblower had filed a complaint about his July 25 call with Zelenskiy, Trump said the conversation was "perfect" and that he had asked his Ukrainian counterpart to do "whatever he can in terms of corruption because the corruption is massive."
During the call, Trump asked Zelenskiy for "a favor," requesting an investigation into a theory related to a Democratic computer server hacked during the 2016 election campaign. Trump also pushed Zelenskiy to investigate Biden and his son. Trump then advised Zelenskiy that Giuliani and Attorney General William Barr would be contacting him about the request, according to a summary of the called released by the White House.
Trump has denied that an investigation of Biden was a condition for releasing military aid as a quid pro quo.
Information for this article was contributed by John Wagner of The Washington Post; by Sheryl Gay Stolberg of The New York Times; by Michael Balsamo, Mary Clare Jalonick, Alan Fram, Robert Burns, Padmananda Rama, Desmond Butler and Michael Biesecker of The Associated Press; and by Frank E. Lockwood of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
A Section on 10/24/2019