Republican protesters storm impeachment hearing

Impeachment proceedings in disarray after Republicans stormed the hearings, bringing them to a halt for five hours.

House Minority Whip Steve Scalise talks to reporters after the protest. Picture: AFP.

Impeachment proceedings in Washington were in disarray on Thursday after Republicans stormed the hearings, bringing them to a halt amid rising tensions over the Democrat’s tactics to impeach President Donald Trump.

The extraordinary stunt came as Republicans were split over the significance of bombshell testimony from the top US envoy in Ukraine, who accused Mr Trump of making US aid for Ukraine conting­ent on investigating his political opponent Joe Biden.

The decision by about 30 Repub­licans to storm the secure hearing rooms on Capitol Hill where House of Representatives impeachment hearings were taking­ place caught Democrats by surprise and brought proceedings to a halt for about five hours.

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It delayed the testimony of the first Defence Department official to appear before the hearings, Laura Cooper, who was due to give evidence about the decision to withhold almost $US400m of US military aid to Ukraine in June.

The move came only days after Mr Trump called on Republicans to be more vigorous and vocal in defending him over the impeachment probe.

Republicans, who eventually ordered in pizzas to the occupied hearing rooms, said they were protesting about the lack of transparency in the impeachment proceeding­s, which have largely been held behind closed doors.

Republican Steve Scales, who led the group, said “my colleagues and I went to confront (house ­intelligence committee chairman Adam) Schiff in his locked room in the Capitol basement to see what he’s been hiding”.

“When we got there he immed­iately shut down the hearing and fled with the witness. Republicans won’t back down. We demand transparency.”

Republicans are angry at the Democrats’ decision to hold most of their impeachment hearings in private. Democrats say this is because­ they do not want the proceedings to turn into a public circus­. But Republicans say they are hiding key facts from the American public and that they are selectively leaking information to help prosecute their case against the president.

Democrat Ted Lieu said the Republican sit-in showed that the party was “freaked out” by the ­evidence that was accumulating against the President.

“They know more facts are going to be delivered that are absolutely damning to the President of the United States,” Mr Lieu said.

Many Republicans did not want to speak about the evidence given the previous day by the acting­ US ambassador to Ukraine, William Taylor, alleging that Mr Trump sought a quid pro quo from his Ukrainian counterpart.

John Thune, the second-ranked Republican in the Senate, said it was hard to draw conclusions about Mr Taylor’s evidence but said the “picture” it painted was “not a good one”.

“The picture coming out of it based on the reporting we’ve seen is, yeah, I would say it’s not a good one,” Senator Thune said. “But I would say also, until we have a process that allows for everybody to see this with full transparency, it’s pretty hard to come to hard and fast conclusions.”

Republicans have largely avoided commenting on the substance­ of Mr Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volod­ymyr Zelensky, which led Democrats to open an impeachment inquiry. Instead, they have ­focused their attacks on the way in which the Democrats are ­conducting the inquiry and the legalit­y of it.

Mr Taylor told a congressional hearing on Wednesday that Mr Trump made US military aid to Ukraine dependent on Mr Zelensky announcing an investigation into Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. Joe Biden, the former vice-president, is the Democrat presidential frontrunner.

Mr Taylor also said Mr Trump refused to meet Mr Zelensky until he publicly pledged to investigate Mr Biden.

The testimony undermines claims by Mr Trump that there was no quid pro quo on the issue.

It has fuelled the push by Demo­crats to impeach the President, with many now expecting that the house will impeach Mr Trump by the end of the year.

Cameron Stewart is also US contributor for Sky News Australia