Corey Lewandowski Corey R. LewandowskiTrump faces tricky choice on Supreme Court pick How Trump can win reelection: Focus on Democrats, not himself Trump Jr. distances from Bannon group, says he attended 'single' event MORE jumped to President Trump Donald John TrumpFederal prosecutor speaks out, says Barr 'has brought shame' on Justice Dept. Former Pence aide: White House staffers discussed Trump refusing to leave office Progressive group buys domain name of Trump's No. 1 Supreme Court pick MORE's defense on Tuesday during his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, blasting "Trump haters" and making it clear he will not answer questions the White House wants him to avoid.

Lewandowski, a former campaign aide to Trump who is close to the White House, took aim at Democrats and former special counsel Robert Mueller Robert (Bob) MuellerCNN's Toobin warns McCabe is in 'perilous condition' with emboldened Trump CNN anchor rips Trump over Stone while evoking Clinton-Lynch tarmac meeting The Hill's 12:30 Report: New Hampshire fallout MORE's investigation in his opening statement, describing the probes as "harassment" while alleging that some critics sought to bring down the president.

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"Sadly, the country spent over three years and 40 million taxpayer dollars on these investigations. It is now clear the investigation was populated by many Trump haters who had their own agenda — to try and take down a duly elected president of the United States," Lewandowski said in his opening statement.

"As for actual 'collusion,' or 'conspiracy,' there was none. What there has been, however, is harassment of the president from the day he won the election," he continued.

The committee hearing quickly descended into chaos as Chairman Jerrold Nadler Jerrold (Jerry) Lewis NadlerDemocrats shoot down talk of expanding Supreme Court Schumer: 'Nothing is off the table' if GOP moves forward with Ginsburg replacement Top Democrats call for DOJ watchdog to probe Barr over possible 2020 election influence MORE (D-N.Y.) sought to question Lewandowski.

Lewandowski first insisted that Nadler provide a copy of the Mueller report so that he could follow along with the passages as Democrats read them.

He then told Nadler that he does not remember the 2017 Oval Office meeting in which Trump asked Lewandowski to persuade then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reverse his recusal and set new limits on the Mueller probe, which was laid out in the special counsel's report.

After Lewandowski paused in answering Nadler's questions, Republicans and Democrats battled over whether the clock should be suspended on the chairman's five minutes of questioning.

Things quickly went downhill from there as GOP members pushed for an adjournment of the panel.

While Lewandowski said he would answer questions about the Mueller report, the White House sought to place limitations on the testimony of Lewandowski, who has never worked in the Trump administration.

Nadler said in his opening remarks that Democrats will not accept these limitations for Lewandowski, who is the committee's first fact witness and who they say was part of the president's efforts to block Mueller's probe into possible obstruction.

And they blasted the White House seeking to block his testimony that extends beyond the Mueller report under the claims of that his discussions with Trump fall under executive branch confidentiality interests.