October 24th 2019

By Hunter

Daily Kos

The move by a group of roughly two dozen House Republicans to "storm" the House sensitive compartmented information facility, or SCIF, compromising the secure space by refusing to turn over private cell phones or submit to other screening, has now ended.

The extent to which the Republican action was intended purely as a pro-Trump publicity stunt can be discovered by looking at the list of participants: Twelve of those Republicans are actually on the three impeachment-relevant committees, and have had access to witness testimony from the beginning. A full 46 House Republicans sit on those committees, and all of them have heard witness testimony. (You may recall the constant presence of those members leaving each deposition to insist to assembled reporters that the testimony they were hearing was untrustworthy, or not at all damaging to Trump, or simply boring.)

The latest updates:

• Donald Trump himself reportedly approved the stunt, only the latest display of White House contempt for both the law and national security considerations.

• Also approving the stunt in advance: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy. McCarthy dismissed the security implications of Republican members bringing cell phones into the secure space, bafflingly telling a reporter, “These are individuals who have never been in Intel Committee before or anywhere else. So it’s nothing serious from that matter.”

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• Rather than the action being an unintentional oversight, some Republicans explicitly refused to turn over their unsecured cell phones to security when entering the facility.

• Rep. Alex Mooney brazenly recorded a "report from inside" the secure space, the latest House Republican to brag about committing a national security breach.

• Rep. Matt Gaetz's office handed out expired congressional passes to uncredentialed reporters and an HBO crew in an effort to boost publicity for the event.

• Rep. Adam Schiff, who is leading the House impeachment inquiry: “Clearly the White House was devastated by yesterday’s testimony. These witnesses have been willing to defy the administration and follow the law and come testify so the president’s allies are trying to stop them through other means.”

Wednesday, Oct 23, 2019 · 3:38:19 PM Central Daylight Time · Hunter

Homeland Security Committee chair Bennie Thompson is now requesting the House Sergeant at Arms “take action with respect to the Members involved in the breach.”

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