Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) attempted to smear expert witnesses, including legal scholar Jonathan Turley, in Thursday’s opening hearing of an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
Krishnamoorthi attacked Turley by claiming he had been “crusading for legal polygamy for years” and that he had defended a convicted pedophile.
The Illinois Democrat was referring to Turley’s arguments, nearly 20 years ago, against prosecuting a criminal named Tom Green for the additional crime of polygamy. Turley wrote in 2004 that the defendant, Tom Green, “was properly prosecuted for a child sex crime,” and he added that “I personally detest polygamy.” But he argued against the use of the law to criminalize consensual sex among adults, including among gay and lesbian Americans.
Krishnamoorthi also attacked another Republican witness, former U.S. Assistant Attorney General Eileen O’Connor, by citing her political posts, which had nothing to do with her expertise on the enforcement of tax crimes.
Here is how Krishnamoorthi attacked O’Connor, and how he characterized Turley’s past intellecutal arguments:
C-SPANLater, Turley took the opportunity to respond:
C-SPANTurley said:
I would like to respond to the attack … I’d like to explain what that attack dealt with — if nothing else, for members of the committee, then for my three children here, who may be a little surprised by what they just heard. As, they, I think, know, I’ve spent my life challenging what is called morals legislation. What the Democratic member attacked me for are laws that dictate to others how they should live their lives. Some of those laws have been used against gay and lesbian couples; they been used against minorities. The individual that the member described, I condemned. I represented the sister wives in a case challenging that law on the basis of individual rights. The trial court ruled in our favor, and struck down that law — the first time that type of law had ever been struck down; the Tenth Circuit later dismissed on technical grounds. But I just want to end with one other thing, and that is: it’s not going to make a difference. You know, this has become a pattern of witnesses, whistleblowers, FBI agents, journalists, being attacked in Congress. It won’t make any difference. It won’t change the constitutional standard. It won’t negate any evidence that you have. But at some point, you’ve got to say: Enough! You know, that we have to have something — the public has to have something in Congress to look to, to have faith. And I have to tell you, it’s not that I think that absurd attack meant any difference to my children, or to the people that are watching. It makes a difference to our process.
Turley was then promptly interrupted by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD).
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the new biography, Rhoda: ‘Comrade Kadalie, You Are Out of Order’. He is also the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
