As Politico put it: “More than 45 House Republicans — nearly a quarter of the House G.O.P. conference — already have full access to the depositions through their membership on one of the three panels leading the impeachment inquiry.” (The three are the Intelligence, Oversight and Foreign Affairs Committees.)

Even some of the Republicans who stormed the room yesterday already had access, as Ursula Perano of Axios noted: “13 of the 41 Republican lawmakers who stormed a closed-door hearing Wednesday to protest an alleged lack of transparency in the impeachment inquiry sit on committees with the power to question witnesses and review documents.”

So why are so many House Republicans claiming otherwise — and why did a few of them jeopardize national security by smuggling phones into the hearing room? Because they understand that the emerging evidence is extremely damaging to Trump. They’ve decided that they would rather try to protect him than exercise their constitutional duty as members of an equally powerful branch of government.

It’s a sad and worrisome spectacle. But I don’t think it is likely to succeed in the end. Adam Schiff, the House Democrat leading the inquiry, has made clear that this phase of the investigation is happening behind close doors because that’s where all serious investigations are initially conducted. But Congress is eventually going to hold hearings where witnesses will testify publicly.

When that happens, Trump’s enablers are going to need to come up with a better excuse than the one they tried yesterday.