Laura Cooper, the top Pentagon official overseeing US policy regarding Ukraine, testified in front of House impeachment investigators on Wednesday after a five-hour delay caused by a group of House Republicans who stormed the secure room where the deposition was taking place.
The GOP members — who don’t sit on the committees that are questioning witnesses in the impeachment inquiry - occupied the secure room, known as a SCIF, in the basement of the Capitol Visitor Center for several hours.
According to multiple accounts from lawmakers, the Republicans, led by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., burst in shortly after a morning press conference protesting the impeachment process as unfair. More than two dozen GOP members participated, a House Intelligence Committee official said. In what the official called a "major security breach," the Republicans brought their cellphones into the SCIF, which is not permitted. Some Republican members refused to comply with requests to remove those devices from the room, the official said.