Republicans barge into Democrats' 'secure room' impeachment hearing

About two dozen House Republicans shouting "Let us in! Let us in!'' barged into the secure room at the Capitol where the latest witness in the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry was set to testify, temporarily shutting down the proceedings on Wednesday.

Representative Matt Gaetz of Florida led the GOP lawmakers past Capitol Police into the hearing of the House Intelligence Committee, which is leading the impeachment investigation of President Donald Trump.

They refused to leave in protest of the closed-door proceedings, delaying for about five hours testimony by 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.

Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana declared: "This is a Soviet-style process. 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."

Republicans ordered pizza and fast food for reporters assembled to witness the action.

Some of the Republicans brought cellphones into the room, took videos and tweeted from inside, which isn't permitted and considered a security breach. The sergeant-at-arms, the top law enforcement officer in the Capitol, was called in.

Most of the Republicans who pushed into the room aren't on the committees conducting the inquiry and aren't entitled to attend the hearings.

Republicans who are on the committees have been in on all hearings and have heard all the witnesses and asked questions. Democrats say they will open the process for public hearings after they conduct their investigation.

Adam Schiff, Democratic House Intelligence Committee chairman, has defended the closed-door hearings, saying that they prevent witnesses from coordinating their accounts of events at the center of the impeachment inquiry.

Democrats called the Republican shutdown of the hearing a "stunt''.

"It's totally inappropriate," said Representative Harley Rouda from California, who watched the episode. "When the facts are against you, when the law is against you … you're left arguing process.''

The Republicans barging into the room came the day after William B. Taylor Jr, the acting US ambassador to Ukraine, testified that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure the country to conduct a pair of investigations — one into 2016 election hacking, the other into the family of former vice-president Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden — that might have helped Trump's re-election campaign next year.

The testimony by Taylor contradicted Trump saying that that there was no quid pro quo in his dealings with the former Soviet state.