Before the questioning even begins, Republicans call foul.

"This is a partisan investigation," declared Rep. Jim Jordan, an unofficial leader of the GOP's impeachment response, at the start of a closed-door deposition with the ousted US ambassador to Ukraine.

"You are willfully selecting facts and omitting others," said Rep. Mark Meadows, another Republican leader of the impeachment rebuttal efforts, as investigators were preparing to interview a former State Department adviser.

"If we're going to continue this circus, I, at least, would like to know what time the circus begins," complained Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, ahead of an interview with the US ambassador to the European Union.

In a pattern established over four closed-door depositions whose transcripts were released this week, Republicans have used their allotted time to question the impeachment inquiry's validity and accuse Democrats of shutting them out of the process.

But for all of the Republicans' complaints about unfairness, the transcripts indicate they were fully involved in the questioning of witnesses during the sometimes-contentious closed door hearings. Over the course of the lengthy sittings, Republicans, Democrats and witnesses' lawyers have clashed over the propriety of questions and the terms of the proceedings.

It mirrors their public attempts to discount the impeachment probe, including an attempt to storm the secure hearing room where the depositions have occurred.

The transcripts provide the fullest picture yet of the closed depositions, which have occurred over long days inside a stuffy room in the basement of the US Capitol. As the inquiry enters a more public phase, the back-and-forth that transpired in private provides a likely preview of upcoming open hearings, where procedural matters and questions of the impeachment probe's legitimacy are likely to arise.

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