Republican Lawmakers Storm Closed-Door Impeachment Inquiry Deposition Demanding Access

Republican lawmakers Wednesday stormed a secure room in the Capitol, demanding entrance and disrupting a closed-door impeachment inquiry deposition as in a bid to turn attention away from the information being uncovered by the investigation.

A published report also knocked down GOP arguments that no quid pro quo was involved in Trump’s asking Ukraine to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden because the Ukrainians were unaware nearly $400 million in military aid was being withheld.

“The American people are being shut out. House Democrats are bypassing constitutional norms and basic standards of due process with their impeachment obsession,” said Rep. Mark Walker, R-N.C., who joined colleagues in disrupting the testimony of Laura Cooper, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia.

The antics came as President Trump again denigrated the proceedings on Twitter and one day after testimony from career diplomat William Taylor indicating military aid to Ukraine was being used for leverage in Trump’s effort to weaken Biden, a leading contender for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. The lawmakers were following instructions from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to focus on Democrats and their tactics.

“This is going to be about process,” McConnell reportedly told a private lunch meeting as cracks started appearing in Republican support for the president.

About two dozen Republicans chanted, “Let us in! Let us in!” as they attempted to barge their way into the room. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who is leading the impeachment inquiry, turned them away and summoned the sergeant-at-arms. The GOP lawmakers were not members of the committees involved in the investigation and not entitled to sit in on the depositions.

The disruption delayed Cooper’s testimony. Democrats hope she can clarify what role if any the Pentagon played in freezing military aid to Ukraine, which has been fighting Russia-backed separatists since Moscow seized the Crimea region in 2014.

Trump took to Twitter to again demand the whistleblower whose complaint triggered the impeachment investigation come forward and predicted Republicans “are going to fight harder than ever to win back the House because of what do-nothing Democrats have done to our country.”

He also retweeted more than a dozen tweets supporting him and criticizing the impeachment process.

Republicans have been arguing there was no quid pro quo in Trump’s request for a Biden invesgitation because the Ukrainians did not know military aid had been frozen. But the New York Times reported word of the freeze had trickled out to high-level Ukrainian officials barely a week after Trump asked Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to open the investigation.

The Times said documents and interviews indicate the Ukrainians were told to reach out to acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, who last week acknowledged there was a quid pro quo and then spent the next four days trying to walk back the admission.

Former acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker argued on Fox News Tuesday even if Trump did abuse his power, that’s not a crime. He said a criminal act is needed for an impeachment inquiry.

"What evidence of a crime do you have? Abuse of power is not a crime," Whitaker said, adding secrecy is no way to conduct an investigation.