Pentagon's Ukraine expert resumes impeachment testimony after Republican protest causes 5-hour delay
Source: Washington Post
The planned impeachment testimony from a Pentagon official responsible for Ukraine policy resumed Wednesday afternoon after several of President 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.
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It was not immediately clear how Wednesday’s standoff was resolved. Democrats debated asking the Capitol Police to physically remove the GOP members but decided against it, fearing that such a dramatic move would play into Republicans’ hands, several lawmakers said. At least 20 Republicans continued to occupy the room — called a SCIF, short for Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility — around 1:45 p.m., GOP aides said. Several exited just after 2 p.m. to attend votes.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pentagon-official-to-testify-about-ukraine-aid-in-house-impeachment-probe/2019/10/22/59c2c872-f518-11e9-8cf0-4cc99f74d127_story.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
the timing of the prank blanked out the President's nonsense about Ukraine and Turkey that he was eager to share! 
