GOP protest interrupts impeachment hearing
Action delayed testimony
WASHINGTON — The planned impeachment testimony from a Pentagon official responsible for Ukraine policy resumed Wednesday afternoon after several of President Donald Trump’s congressional allies staged a demonstration against the probe and barged into a secure facility on Capitol Hill, causing a more than five-hour delay.
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Laura Cooper was due to speak at 10 a.m. in closed testimony focused on the mechanics of U.S. security assistance for Ukraine and fallout from the White House’s decision to withhold it for several months. But conservative lawmakers disrupted her session as it was about to begin, refusing to leave the secure room where impeachment witnesses have met with lawmakers.
The demonstration marked the latest attempt by Republicans to discredit the probe into whether Trump ordered the hold on military aid to pressure Ukraine’s new president, Volodymyr Zelensky, into launching investigations that would benefit Trump politically. It follows explosive testimony Tuesday from a key U.S. diplomat, who detailed for impeachment investigators how he was told that Trump had made release of the aid package contingent on a public pledge by Zelensky to investigate the Biden family and the 2016 U.S. election, undercutting Trump’s repeated denials of a quid pro quo.
Trump’s allies on Capitol Hill have sought to ease pressure on the White House by launching a coordinated messaging campaign against the Democratic-led inquiry, painting it as a secretive attempt to force the president from office. Republicans have decried the closed-door format for witness depositions, aimed at preventing speakers from coordinating their testimony, and the decision to limit participation to members of three House committees.
Republicans on the three panels — the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees — have been permitted to attend the depositions and ask questions. Some of those who barged in ahead of Cooper’s testimony are not members of those committees.
Democrats have said they will open the process for public hearings in a matter of weeks after the initial stage of their investigation concludes.