“Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes are up,” he responded instead.

Asked whether he had ever been asked to approve any request or action by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, Whitaker refused to answer.

Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker ’s House Judiciary Committee testimony took a turn Friday morning when he attempted to halt chairman Rep. Jerrold Nadler ’s (D-N.Y.) line of questioning.

Jerry Nadler asks Matthew Whitaker if he has ever been asked to approve any request or action to be taken by the Special Counsel. Whitaker: "Mr. Chairman, I see that your five minutes is up." The response in the room is remarkable. Via CSPAN2 pic.twitter.com/UAcOyulX46

The hearing briefly went off the rails, with some in attendance jeering at Whitaker for the gutsy move.

Nadler revealed a look of surprise before laughing.

“I’m here voluntarily,” Whitaker went on. “We have agreed to five-minute rounds.”

Whether or not he would appear before the committee to answer questions about his dealings with the Mueller investigation was unknown until Thursday evening, when Whitaker finally agreed. He previously tried backing out of the testimony unless the committee’s members promised they would not issue him a subpoena.

In response, the chairman told the room: “I will point out that we didn’t enforce the five-minute rule on acting Attorney General Whitaker.”

Nadler then used the disruption to call a break.

After the hearing resumed, Whitaker made another reference to the official time allotted a member of the committee. (It is not unusual for questioning to expand past the official time constraints.) That member, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), did not laugh it aside.