‘You’ve Been Crusading For Polygamy For Years!’ Impeachment Hearing Derails When Congressman Confronts Jonathan Turley on Defending a Pedophile

The impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden kicked off on Thursday with the first House Oversight Committee hearing. While the most far-right Republicans in the House, including committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-KY), are attempting to will a debunked conspiracy theory into truth, House Democrats are spending their five minutes doing two things: pointing out that the federal government is about to shut down and tearing apart the GOP’s witnesses. Constitutional law professor and Fox News fixture Jonathan Turley was one such target, and it was an icky exchange.

Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL), after sharing some extremist LinkedIn posts by witness Eileen O’Connor, turned to Turley and confronted him with his past defense of polygamy, as well as a defense of a convicted pedophile:

Krishnamoorthi: Professor Turley, in 2006, you wrote an op-ed in The Guardian entitled, quote, Stop Persecuting Polygamists. There, you likened polygamists to, quote, persecuted minorities. And you said polygamy is, quote, a practice with deep and good faith, religious meaning. Isn’t that what you said?

Turley: I represented the Sister Wives, a family, in challenging a polygamy prosecution.

Krishnamoorthi: The answer is yes. You’ve been crusading for legalizing polygamy for years. In fact, in an op-ed in the USA Today, you said that a Utah polygamist named Tom Green, who was also convicted of pedophilia for raping his 13-year-old stepdaughter, should not have been charged with polygamy. Now, Mr. Chairman —

Turley: Can I respond, sir? Because that’s not… Can I respond? Because it’s not entirely accurate. I actually criticized him. What I was dealing with was the constitutionality of what is called morals legislation. And I admit I’m pretty libertarian —

Krishnamoorthi: Was Tom Green convicted of pedophilia and rape?

Turley: But the idea was whether the government can impose a moral code on people —

Krishnamoorthi: Was he convicted of pedophilia and rape? The answer is yes.

Watch the video above via C-SPAN.