GOP Members Disrupt Impeachment Hearing With Trump’s Blessing
GOP Members Disrupt Impeachment Hearing With Trump’s Blessing
(Bloomberg) -- A group of Republicans disrupted a hearing of the Democrats’ impeachment inquiry Wednesday by storming into a secure room at the Capitol in a protest carried out with the blessing of President Donald Trump.
The two dozen or so GOP House members are among some of Trump’s staunchest defenders in Congress, and at least some of them met with the president Tuesday where they outlined a plan to crash the hearing, according to several people familiar with the matter. Trump supported the action, saying he wanted the transcripts of the hearings released because they will exonerate him, the people said.
The Republicans said they were protesting because lawmakers who aren’t part of the three committees leading the inquiry are being blocked from access to the closed-door testimony or transcripts. The probe is now focused on whether Trump improperly pressured Ukraine to help with a politically motivated investigation.
Florida Representative Matt Gaetz, one of the leaders of the demonstration, accused the Democrats of orchestrating “secret interviews” and “selective leaks” about the testimony of current and former Trump administration officials.
But it was the second time that Republicans have acted to disrupt a hearing by committees conducting the impeachment inquiry. And it comes a day after the acting ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, told the lawmakers in a detailed 15-page statement that Trump associates circumvented traditional diplomatic channels to pressure Ukraine’s new president to investigate the president’s political rivals.
The standoff, which ended after more than five hours, marks an escalation of the effort by Trump and his allies to counter the Democratic-run investigation that is almost certain to lead to the president’s impeachment in the House. During a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump said, “Republicans have to get tougher and fight.” Gaetz said he wasn’t in a separate White House meeting with Republican lawmakers and had not talked to Trump about the protest.
The month-old impeachment inquiry has heard testimony from a parade of current and former administration officials, several of whom have given testimony that chips away at Trump’s repeated assertion that there was no “quid pro quo” offered to Ukraine.
Taylor said he was told Trump directly called for $400 million of military aid to be held back until Ukraine’s president publicly said he’d investigate former Vice President Joe Biden -- a top Democratic rival in the 2020 race -- and his son Hunter.
“Obviously they’re just trying to shut it down,” Maryland Democratic Representative Jamie Raskin said of the Republicans’ action. “They don’t like what’s coming out of it. Ambassador Bill Taylor just destroyed the last vestiges of their defense.”
Trump on Tuesday met with about 30 House Republicans at the White House to talk about the situation in Syria and the impeachment inquiry. During a nearly two-hour meeting, which focused mostly on the impeachment inquiry, lawmakers shared their plans to storm into the secure room, according to the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
They entered just before Pentagon official Laura Cooper was set to testify about delays in U.S. military aid to Ukraine. Her testimony got under way Wednesday afternoon, a little more than five hours after she arrived.
Representative Steve Scalise, the second-ranking Republican in the House, said he and his colleagues want the full House to vote on whether to proceed with an impeachment inquiry and a more open process. He and other GOP lawmakers didn’t rule out continuing such protests.
Although Republican members of the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs committees are hearing the testimony and questioning witnesses, other lawmakers aren’t allowed in the room and transcripts so far have been kept under wraps. The House parliamentarian ruled earlier this month, when Gaetz previously tried to enter the secure hearing, that members who aren’t on the three committees aren’t allowed to attend.
Democratic House members who are taking part in the inquiry said Wednesday they expected public hearings will follow another week or two of closed-door witness statements.
Representative Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat, accused the Republicans of violating security protocols by bringing phones and other electronic devices into what is supposed to be a secure space used for classified materials.
--With assistance from Laura Litvan, Jennifer Jacobs and Josh Wingrove.
To contact the reporters on this story: Billy House in Washington at bhouse5@bloomberg.net;Evan Sully in Washington at esully2@bloomberg.net;Saleha Mohsin in Washington at smohsin2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Joe Sobczyk at jsobczyk@bloomberg.net, Laurie Asséo
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