Well here’s a twist. As pointed out on Twitter by a former Republican congressional staffer, the permanent rules of the Senate do not allow a standing committee (such as the Senate Judiciary Committee) to hire a consultant, such as the tomorrow’s prosecutor Rachel Mitchell, without the consent of both the committee chair and ranking member. Here’s the rule highlighted:
The same rule appears here, on page 820 of the document. If this is the correct reading of this rule, and the language gives no reason to doubt the interpretation offered by the former Congressional staffer’s tweet, I sure hope that Senator Feinstein is blocking this absurdity and will use her authority to force the Republican Senators to question the witnesses themselves tomorrow.