Some of the Republican-invited witnesses at the GOP’s first impeachment inquiry hearing cast doubt on whether there was enough evidence to support an impeachment of President Biden.
Jonathan Turley, a go-to witness for conservatives in Congress, at one point told lawmakers some of the details they’d gathered “really do gravitate in favor of the president.”
“I do not believe that the current evidence would support articles of impeachment that is something that an inquiry has to establish,” he said. “But I also believe that the House has passed the threshold for an impeachment inquiry into the conduct of President Biden.”
At another point, when asked to weigh in on GOP claims that Hunter Biden was engaged in “influence peddling,” Turley said Congress has failed to do needed work to connect it to President Biden.
“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. 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,” Turley said.
“But without that type of nexus, then no, I don’t,” he added in response to whether he would back a vote to impeach President Biden.
Later in the hearing, Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) repeated portions of Turley’s testimony, saying, “Boy, that’s awkward.”
Speaking with The Hill after the hearing, Turley said, “My concern is only to get it right.”
“I said very clearly that this meets a threshold for an inquiry, which is the question of the hearing. So I think they have ample reason to go forward. And that was the point. This is the beginning of an inquiry. There’s no reason why we should be talking about actual articles of impeachment until this investigation moves forward,” he added.
—Updated at 5:38 p.m.