GOP witness says current evidence doesn’t support Biden impeachment
At the first impeachment inquiry hearing held by House Republicans, some of the Republican-invited witnesses cast doubt on whether there was enough evidence to support an impeachment of President Biden.
Jonathan Turley, a conservative legal scholar who has testified before Congress on impeachment matters in the past, told lawmakers that some of the details they had gathered “really do gravitate in favor of the president.”
“I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment,” Turley said. “But I also believe that the House has passed the threshold for an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of President Biden.”
Turley also said that Congress had failed to do the necessary work to connect the allegations against Hunter Biden, the president’s son, to President Biden himself.
“The key here that the committee has to drill down on is whether they can establish a linkage with the influence peddling, which is a form of corruption, and the President whether he had knowledge, whether he participated, whether he encouraged it,” Turley said. “We simply don’t know, and we don’t even know if this was an illusion or not. But you can’t find the answers to that.”
Later in the hearing, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) repeated portions of Turley’s testimony, saying, “Boy, that’s awkward.”
Turley’s testimony is a significant blow to Republicans, who are hoping to build a case for impeachment against Biden. The fact that even one of their own witnesses is not convinced that the evidence supports impeachment is likely to raise questions about the seriousness of the inquiry.