Turmoil at Capitol as Republicans disrupt inquiry
WASHINGTON — House Republicans ground the impeachment inquiry to a halt for hours Wednesday, staging a protest at the Capitol that sowed chaos and delayed a crucial deposition as they sought to deflect the spotlight from the revelations the investigation has unearthed about President Donald Trump.
Chanting “Let us in! Let us in!,” about two dozen Republican members of the House pushed past Capitol Police officers to enter the secure rooms of the House Intelligence Committee, where impeachment investigators have been conducting private interviews that have painted a damaging picture of the president’s behavior. Most of the Republicans who protested are not on the committees conducting the inquiry and are therefore not entitled to attend their hearings. They refused to leave, and the standoff in the normally hushed corridors was marked by shouting matches between Republican and Democratic lawmakers and an appearance by the House sergeant-at-arms, the top law enforcement official in the chamber.
After waiting about five hours for the protest to break up, Laura Cooper, deputy assistant secretary of defense for Russia, Ukraine and Eurasia, answered questions for more than three hours before the panel wrapped up its work for the day.
“This is a Soviet-style process,” declared Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican. “It should not be allowed in the United States of America. Every member of Congress ought to be allowed in that room. The press ought to be allowed in that room.”
The protest came a day after the most eye-popping testimony yet about Trump’s pressure campaign to enlist Ukraine to smear his political rivals, which unfolded as Trump met privately at the White House with ultraconservative Republicans who promised aggressive measures to defend him against the impeachment onslaught.
Cooper appeared under subpoena, in defiance of the Defense Department, which has said it would not cooperate in the inquiry.
Her appearance came one day after the explosive testimony of William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. He effectively confirmed Democrats’ main accusation against Trump: that the president withheld military aid from Ukraine in a quid pro quo effort to pressure that country’s leader to incriminate former Vice President Joe Biden and smear other Democrats.
Lawmakers who heard Cooper’s testimony said it was less dramatic and more technical than Taylor’s and gave a narrower view of the suspension of aid at the heart of the inquiry. But Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the Intelligence Committee chairman who is leading the inquiry, said the panel was “grateful that the witness is a real professional and has come forward notwithstanding the obstacles.”
Across the Capitol, leading Republican senators who have become resigned to the prospect of serving as jurors in the impeachment trial of their party’s president were struggling to explain away the revelations about Trump.
Some Republicans are growing increasingly uneasy about the inquiry and fretting that it could get much worse for them. Publicly, they are taking their cues from the president, and Wednesday’s performance appeared intended to please Trump.