The House Judiciary Committee's hearing on evidence to impeach President Donald Trump broke into chaos as committee counsel were given a rare opportunity to question each other as part of the proceedings.

Republican members of Congress repeatedly interrupted Judiciary counsel Barry Berke as he largely pressed GOP counsel Stephen Castor about the evidence presented in the inquiry.

And GOP Rep. Doug Collins, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee, publicly sparred with House Intelligence Committee chief investigator Daniel Goldman over how the Ukrainian probe was conducted.

Committee lawyers tend not to be in the spotlight. More often than not, they're seated behind the lawmakers they work for during committee hearings, or working behind closed doors on other matters.

But Monday's hearing created a rare clash of the legal minds on Capitol Hill. The questioning was permitted under procedures passed by the House for impeachment hearings, which allows the chair and ranking member of the Judiciary Committee to tap counsel to question witnesses during a 45-minute period.

Just minutes into Berke's period of questioning, Rep. Louis Gohmert interrupted to oppose Berke being allowed to interview witnesses shortly after Berke himself sat at the witness table to deliver an opening statement on the evidence gathered during the inquiry.

"How much money do you have to give" to be able to question witnesses, Gohmert asked. Nadler immediately pushed back, saying that the Republican would not "cast aspersions" about Berke's credibility.

Berke was again interrupted when Rep. Matt Gaetz complained he could not see the screens where excerpts from witness transcripts and news reports were displayed. Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner joined in to support Gaetz. The screens were then turned so they faced the dais where members were seated.

As the Republican members yelled, GOP Rep. Jim Jordan rocked back and forth in his chair, barely suppressing a grin.

The frequent interruptions of Berke are indicative of GOP efforts to use procedural motions to stymie the Democratic impeachment inquiry. At the start of Monday's hearing, members like GOP Rep. Andy Biggs pushed Nadler to say whether he would schedule a minority day of hearings for impeachment.

Nadler refused to answer at the time, saying he was taking it under consideration. But he said in a letter released during the hearing that he was rejecting the GOP's list of requested witnesses.

Berke and Castor had their fair share of sharp exchanges during the questioning. The Democratic counsel would ask Castor yes-or-no questions that Castor would then reply more broadly to. Berke would then try to narrow down the reply.

At one point, Sensenbrenner interrupted to say that Berke was "badgering the witness."

"Sharp cross-examination of the witness is not badgering the witness," Nadler replied.

While Berke frequently clashed with Castor, he occasionally directed his attention toward Goldman, a former federal prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, to provide factual context about the findings from the Ukraine probe.

Collins, the ranking member of the Judiciary Committee and a lawyer himself, decried the process of having committee counsel question each other as a "charade."

Collins pushed Goldman over how the committee obtained phone records and if they cross-checked them with numbers for members of Congress. Collins asked Goldman to say whether it was the investigator or Schiff who gave that order.

Phone records showed that GOP Rep. Devin Nunes, the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee, exchanged calls with a phone number for Lev Parnas, an indicted associate of Trump's personal attorney Rudy Giuliani.

When Goldman asked for time to answer Collins' questions, the top Republican refused, saying Berke didn't give Castor that chance.

And after Goldman said he was not going answers questions about how the House Intelligence Committee ran its investigation, Collins criticized the response.

"We're done," Collins said. "You're not answering the question, you're not being honest about this answer. You know who it is, you're just not answering."

Collins also claimed that Goldman took a "gratuitous shot" at U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland during Goldman's opening statement at the hearing, by referring to the ambassador as a "$1 million donor" to Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

And he told Goldman "to be careful" about making insinuations about donors while under oath, noting that both Goldman and Berke made campaign donations to Democrats.

Goldman fought back, asking Collins what he meant by the remark. "I didn't give anything close to a million dollars," he said.

"The implication is that we want Schiff in this chair, not you," Gaetz interjected. "You weren't elected." Nadler cut Gaetz off, as other members were not allowed to ask questions at the time.

Republican members have been demanding that House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff testify as a fact witness as part of the impeachment inquiry. During Monday's hearing, they put up a poster of a milk carton, displaying Schiff as a missing child.

Schiff has declined to do so, but said he would allow staff—like Goldman—to appear.

Even as tensions flared up between staff and members from both parties, Nadler, Berke and Collins could been seen talking and laughing as Castor delivered his testimony, under questioning from GOP committee counsel Ashley Callen.

Read more: