SALT LAKE CITY — Utah Rep. John Curtis joined 19 other House Republicans Tuesday in backing a resolution calling for all members of Congress to receive transcripts of classified closed-door hearings, including those being conducted in the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.

The resolution follows an announcement by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., that there will be a vote, likely Thursday, on formalizing the next steps in the impeachment inquiry. The new rules are being seen as signaling a more open process going forward, but at least two of Utah’s three GOP House members are opposed.

Curtis, who has attended some hearings as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said he’s restrained from discussing details of the inquiry into Trump’s pressuring Ukrainian leaders into investigating a Democratic rival in the 2020 president race, former Vice President Joe Biden.

But Utah’s 3rd Congressional District representative said Tuesday he’s not sure what he’s hearing rises to the level of impeachment.

“Interestingly, for me, the more I listen and the more I’m able to attend these things, it moves further and further away from an impeachable offense,” Curtis told KSL Newsradio. “I think it’s clearly partisan. You walk into that room and the Democrats think they’ve scored huge victories and the Republicans shrug our shoulders and say, ‘I don’t get it.’”

Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, also said that he hasn’t seen an impeachable offense.

“I say that from the perspective that I’m not here to defend Donald Trump. I’ve never felt any responsibility to defend Donald Trump. I’m here to find and defend the truth,” Stewart said, expressing concern that impeachment centers on “one sentence in one phone call” between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

The president tells Zelensky in the call, “I would like you to do us a favor though” during a discussion of weapons sales to Ukraine, and then talks about the need to find out more about the Bidens, claiming Joe Biden protected his son, Hunter, who had dealings in Ukraine, from prosecution.

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The 2nd District congressman, a member of the House Intelligence Committee that’s conducting impeachment hearings, said Trump was asking that corruption in the Ukraine be investigated.

“It’s “very common” for the executive branch to withhold funds “as a tool to get other nations to do what we want them to do,” Stewart said on KSL Newsradio. “It’s the president’s prerogative and it’s hardly criminal to do that. Presidents have done that for hundreds of years.”

Stewart said committee members “learned nothing new” from U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman’s closed-door testimony Tuesday. Vindman, the top Ukraine expert on the National Security Council, listened in on the call and reported his concerns about demanding a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen to a superior.

“This is one individual who had concerns and he expressed those concerns,” Stewart said, adding that others did not share Vindman’s view.

No other member of Utah’s congressional delegation has signed onto the “Let Everyone Access a Copy of Transcripts Resolution” sponsored by freshman Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn., who also serves on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Curtis said all House members have the security clearance necessary to review classified information. Last week, a group of Republican House members barged into a secure facility on Capitol Hill where a Pentagon official was to testify before the House Intelligence Committee to protest the private proceedings.

Curtis also wrote a letter to Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee that is also holding closed-door hearings, calling the impeachment inquiry a “seemingly rush process” and suggesting there is not enough time between now and Thursday’s vote on new rules to review testimony.

“Even if hearing transcripts were released right now, by my rough estimation it would require more hours to read the transcripts than there are hours left before the official vote,” Curtis said in his letter, released Monday. “Is it truly your intention to call for a vote with the impossibility to cast an informed vote?”

Curtis said he only found out about the upcoming vote via social media.

“There’s been no communication with the Republican Party. As a matter of fact, even at this moment, the Republican Party doesn’t know what will be in that bill,” he said, calling it an attempt to launch a second inquiry. “To start over on this thing seems highly unproductive to me.”

Curtis did not say how he intends to vote on the new rules for the impeachment inquiry that includes requiring a public report and allowing for due process rights for the president as the House builds a case to send to the Senate for trial.

After the details of the new rules were released later Tuesday, Curtis spokeswoman Ally Riding said the congressman would not be making any additional statement, noting “the text of the resolution doesn’t change” what he had already said publicly.

Stewart opposes the resolution containing the impeachment inquiry rules and said in a statement, “So far the Democrats have held hearings behind closed doors while selectively leaking soundbites in order to mislead the public.

“Now, more than 35 days since the beginning, Speaker Pelosi is rushing to retroactively legitimize her flawed investigation. As one of the select few who have been allowed to attend the closed door hearings, I remain unconvinced that there is evidence of a crime, much less a high crime that warrants impeachment.”

Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, was also critical of the rules resolution in a KSL Newsradio interview.

“This doesn’t change anything. This just kind of codifies the running-by-the-seat-of-your-pants approach that Pelosi has been doing on this,” Bishop said. He said the impeachment inquiry has ignored rules already in place and suggested the resolution amounts to nothing more than “whatever cliche you want, putting lipstick on a pig.”

Utah’s only Democrat in Congress, Rep. Ben McAdams, was reviewing the new rules, his spokeswoman, Alyson Heyrend said. She said he would have a statement after Thursday’s vote, McAdams, who won the 4th District seat last year by less than 700 votes, is considered one of the nation’s most vulnerable Democrats in the 2020 election.

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