There are REPUBLICANS sitting in those SCIF meetings.
It is standard procedure for the Congressional Committees to hold closed-door-meetings. Most Congressional Committees hold closed-door-meetings on a regular basis.
Neither Republicans nor Democrats who do not serve on the committees conducting the impeachment inquiry are allowed in the room during closed door hearings.
Republican members on those committees are allowed equal time to their Democratic counterparts to question witnesses.
This has been practiced countless times since the creation of Congress, most notably and recently, in the Benghazi hearings.
Trey Gowdy, the former [REPUBLICAN] South Carolina congressman who headed the Benghazi hearings in the House, once said: “The private ones [hearings] always produce better results.”
Democrats deny that Republicans are being treated unfairly, noting they have had equal time to question witnesses and full access to the meetings.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., criticized his Republican colleagues for the tactic, calling them “nuts” to make a “run on the SCIF.”
“That’s not the way to do it,” he said.
House Republicans disrupted the testimony of Pentagon official Laura Cooper on Wednesday by storming into a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility (SCIF) and insisting that the ongoing impeachment proceedings take place in public.
Reports on Republicans’ unprecedented actions are somewhat incomplete at the moment, but it’s likely they have violated House rules and perhaps federal law.
Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz may have been tweeting from inside SCIF, which could be an offense. Electronic devices are banned in the SCIF.
RE: 2019-10-22