“That wasn’t true, was it, sir?” Mr. Berke asked.

Mr. Lewandowski struggled to answer, ultimately telling the lawyer, “You can interpret it any way you like.”

But when pressed, Mr. Lewandowski said: “I have no obligation to have a candid conversation with the media whatsoever, just like they have no obligation to cover me honestly, and they do it inaccurately all the time.”

“You are admitting that on national television you were lying there?” Mr. Berke asked.

“They have been inaccurate on many occasions,” Mr. Lewandowski replied, “and perhaps I was inaccurate that time.

It was only one of several moments in which Mr. Berke plainly got under the skin of Mr. Lewandowski, who mentioned repeatedly that he did not have a law degree from Harvard, as Mr. Berke does.

Republicans had tried mightily to prevent him from participating in the questioning. Hours into the hearing, a nasty argument broke out between Democrats and Republicans over whether Mr. Berke, who is an outside consultant to the Judiciary panel, should be allowed to question Mr. Lewandowski in the hour allotted to staff lawyers for each side.

Republicans balked, using parliamentary maneuvers to try to derail the move, but majority Democrats easily dispensed with their objections, and that of Mr. Lewandowski’s lawyer, who commandeered a microphone at the witness table to register his opposition.

The episode enraged Republicans, who called it a blatant violation of committee rules. Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, the panel’s ranking member, at one point stormed out of the hearing in protest. When he returned, he said his side would not have a staff lawyer question Mr. Lewandowski, and the session was adjourned.