The House Oversight Committee‘s first hearing on the impeachment inquiry against President Joe Biden took a turn when a Democratic congressman began questioning one of the witnesses on his past writings on polygamy.
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) asked George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley about a 2006 op-ed in the Guardian in which he wrote that polygamy should not be persecuted.
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“Professor Turley, in 2006 you wrote an op-ed in the Guardian entitled, “Stop persecuting polygamists.” There you liken polygamists to ‘persecuted minorities’ and you said polygamy is ‘a practice with deep and good-faith religious meaning,'” Krishnamoorthi said.
Turley responded by saying he had represented “the sister wives family in challenging a polygamy prosecution,” to which Krishnamoorthi interrupted saying, “The answer is yes.”
Krishnamoorthi then accused Turley of defending Tom Green, a polygamist who was convicted of child rape, in an op-ed in USA Today because he had also been convicted of polygamy. Turley countered Krishnamoorthi’s question by saying the Illinois Democrat has mischaracterized the piece.
“Can I respond, because that’s not entirely accurate. I actually criticized him, but I was dealing with the constitutionality of what is called morals legislation, and I admit I am pretty libertarian,” Turley said before he was interrupted by Krishnamoorthi. Turley attempted to continue his answer by saying the morals legislation was about “whether the government can pose a moral code on people,” but was again interrupted.
“We are counting down the hours until a government shutdown and here we have a hearing where we have one witness who defended a polygamist who is convicted of pedophilia and rape, and we have another witness with LinkedIn accounts with extreme views posted. I think that unfortunately, this speaks to the credibility of the witnesses and the credibility of this impeachment inquiry,” Krishnamoorthi concluded.
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Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) then brought a point of order, asking if the witnesses may have time to “respond to those malicious statements.” House Oversight Committee chairman James Comer (R-KY) said the witnesses may address those statements during a different representative’s line of questioning.
The hearing is the first since House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) announced the House would open an impeachment inquiry into Biden.
