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 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."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.
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. "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.
Turley was able to respond to the accusations during Rep. Gary Palmer's line of questioning nearly an hour later.