When the House Intelligence Committee begins holding public impeachment hearings this week, it will bring the staff counsel who have led closed-door depositions into the spotlight.

Staff counsel for the committees were already tasked with handling the private interviews. But rules for the impeachment hearings also allow the top lawmakers on the panel—chairman Adam Schiff, D-California, and ranking member Rep. Devin Nunes, R-California—to yield time to counsel during an initial 45-minute period of questioning for each member at the start of the public hearings.