On Wednesday, a group of Republican elected officials burst into a secure room in which the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee was to hear from a Pentagon official.
At each new hearing, his lot of revelations. Almost a month after the start of the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump, testimony before the House of Representatives' investigative committees brings their overwhelming evidence against the US president.
Paradoxically, the day of Wednesday, October 23 announced rather calm on the front of the investigation: the only hearing envisaged was that of Laura Cooper, representative of the department of defense in charge of questions related to Ukraine and Russia.
Concerted approach with the president
But that was without counting on the fighting spirit of President Trump. On Tuesday, he received about 30 members of the Freedom Caucus, a parliamentary group representing the ultra-conservative wing of the Republican Party in the House of Representatives.
At this meeting, they discussed the situation in Syria and the ongoing investigation. According to Bloomberg News, the elected officials "Have expressed their intention to storm the secure room." This space is the Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF), a room used for closed-door hearings before members of Congress. Judging by their excellent idea, Donald Trump even asked them, according to the Washington Post, from "Do not hold back their blows".
On Wednesday, these elected officials have therefore taken action. "I drove thirty of my colleagues to SCIF where Adam Schiff (Democratic Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee) collects secret depositions for theimpeachment ", launched on Twitter the Republican representative of Florida Matt Gaetz, a faithful supporter of Donald Trump. Accusing Democrats to resort to Soviet-style methods, these parliamentarians entered their mobile phones into the SCIF and "live-tweeted" their performance.
BREAKING: I'm over 30 of my colleagues in the SCIF where Adam Schiff is holding secret impeachment evidence. … https://t.co/tq6LalUrA2
"The SCIF is designed to prevent eavesdropping and allow members of Congress to receive highly classified information on how the United States collects information about their adversaries, and on highly sensitive intelligence operations.", has explained Mieke Eoyang, a former staff member of the House Intelligence Committee and now a national security expert at the Third Way think tank in Washington. The action of the elected Republicans was therefore made in defiance of the rules of security of the House.
In addition, Adam Schiff was forced to call the Sergeant-at-Arms of the House, responsible for maintaining order and decorum in the House, reports the Washington Post. According to an audio recording broadcast on Twitter by Alex Mooney, a Republican elected, Adam Schiff even left the room because, according to him, "He refused to allow the hearing to proceed in a transparent manner".
BREAKING -> My report from inside the SCIF hearing room where we are exposing Adam Schiff's secret so-called impeac … https://t.co/CWGpZbvULL
The "protesters" who had taken over the hall had no reason to be there. They are not members of any of the House's three House Inquiry Committees, the House Intelligence Committee, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Business Committee. Foreign Affairs (House Committee on Foreign Affairs).
Trump and his supporters run out of arguments
The authors of this coup pretend to ignore that forty-seven elected Republicans are present in these commissions, participate in the investigation and have access to the coins that are paid. In a letter to Adam Schiff, the Republicans demanded that the whistleblower behind the investigation testify publicly. They also do not hesitate to question the witnesses.
In his editorial, the New York Times felt that everything "Circus (…) was meant to delegitimize the investigation that Mr. Trump and his supporters have portrayed as partisan". Without real arguments to defend themselves, the Republicans and the president are reduced to presenting Donald Trump as a victim. " VSIs all they have left, asserts the daily. The action, very media, will not have finally prevented the hearing of Laura Cooper, with nearly five hours late. And on Thursday, Donald Trump cracked a Tweet thanking the elected Republicans for their intervention.
The Washington Post speculates that the House could release the charges against Donald Trump in mid-November and vote his charge. The procedure would pass in the Senate, majority republican, for the "trial" of the president.
