During a House Judiciary Committee hearing last week, Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) questioned attorney Jonathan Turley about President Trump's business dealings with foreign governments.
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00:00Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Turley, it's good to see you again. You are a frequent witness for a variety of different hearings for the Republicans.
00:12And in fact, you testified in the last Congress related to an impeachment investigation. And as I recall, you testified that you believed that the Republican investigation related to Hunter Biden's private foreign investments did merit an impeachment investigation against President Biden, I guess based on alleged meetings that the president had with Hunter Biden.
00:42Hunter's business partners, even though there was never any evidence presented that they discussed Hunter's businesses, business ventures, or that the president ever financially benefited from those ventures.
00:55Is that generally an accurate assessment? You didn't call for impeachment. You just suggested there should be an investigation, right?
01:04The purpose of that hearing was to determine whether there could be an impeachment inquiry and whether it's just asking what you're telling.
01:12I'm trying to say. I'm trying to say that. No, did you suggest, did you say directly that there was a legitimate basis to move forward with an impeachment investigation?
01:22Yeah, what I said is that if those allegations were proven, they could amount to impeachable offenses.
01:27All right. Well, let's focus for a second on some conduct that's been going on over the last few months.
01:33The related to World Liberty Financial. Are you familiar with that company?
01:40No, you're not familiar. OK. Are you familiar at all with Donald Trump's interest in crypto currency?
01:48No. So you're not familiar with the fact that Donald Trump issued a meme coin two or three days before his inauguration?
01:59I saw something of that in the press, but I'm not that familiar with it.
02:03OK. Well, let's hypothetically. It's not hypothetical. It's true.
02:09Donald Trump has a financial interest in a meme coin named after himself.
02:15And he recently offered a VIP White House tour and special reception to the meme coin's 25 biggest holders.
02:27After that announcement, the coin surged more than 50 percent.
02:33Does that seem like something that warrants investigation to you, Mr. Turley?
02:37Well, there's no question that you can investigate that to see if there was any criminal conduct.
02:43I want to distinguish between that and the influence peddling scandal that the hearing was about in the Biden administration.
02:50I'm not talking about that hearing. And I know you like to filibuster, Mr. Turley.
02:53No, no, I'm happy to talk about that hearing. It was the biggest joke of an investigation.
02:57It was embarrassing that you call yourself a credible criminal criminal professor that you would actually think that there was any evidence that warranted an investigation.
03:10But I'm focusing right now because it would seem to me, if you have any credibility, you would agree that auctioning off a White House tour for the highest investors in your own company would warrant either impeachment or criminal investigation.
03:27But let me move on because it gets worse.
03:30The president is a significant financial beneficiary of a company called World Liberty Financial, which issues a stable coin.
03:42Are you familiar with stable coins?
03:44I'm not.
03:44OK, a stable coin is essentially a digital version of a dollar that can be used in transactions.
03:51Recently, the World Liberty, this organization, which Donald Trump is a beneficiary of, entered into a deal with a UAE-backed company
04:10that would complete a two billion transaction, billion dollar transaction with a company that has previously admitted to engaging in money laundering.
04:22And Donald Trump's company will now generate tens to hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue from that transaction with a foreign government.
04:34And I'm sure you're familiar with the foreign emoluments clause, Mr. Turley.
04:39Would you say that based on that information, since apparently you only follow Hunter Biden's finances and not President Trump's,
04:48would you say that based on me providing you with that information, that that would warrant an impeachment investigation?
04:55Congressman, when you say that we have to preserve our credibility, I think you would agree.
05:00Can you answer the question, sir?
05:02He's trying to answer the question.
05:03Your time has expired.
05:05I will allow the gentleman to answer the question.
05:07Thanks, in the interest of credibility cited by the member, I'm not going to rely on the facts that you just gave me for the first time to render a judgment on it.
05:15I'm not opposed to investigations of alleged corruption.
05:19That was the point of the previous hearing.
05:21But the way to establish credibility is not, as you did, sir, just engage in personality attacks and personal innuendos.
05:30I'm happy to speak with you and to work with you about anything dealing with corruption in this building.
05:37I've been writing about that for three decades.
05:39I've been called as a witness for both the Democrats and Republicans dealing with that.
05:42Well, I've only seen you as a witness.
05:44Your time has expired, sir.
05:46Your time has expired.
05:47I'm happy to yield back.
05:49Did you finish your question?
05:51Only that the way that we can actually regain...
05:54I thought my time has expired.
05:55Your time has expired.
05:57I said your time expired.
05:58He gets an opportunity to finish answering the question.
06:00I'd like to reclaim my time since answering your question.
06:02No, you have no additional time.
06:04You are out of order.
06:06He's answering my question.
06:07You are out of order.
06:08I would like to reclaim my time.
06:08You cannot...
06:09No.
06:10He's answering the question because you personally attacked him.
06:14I've said he can answer the question.
06:15I give that courtesy.
06:16How did I personally attack him, Mr. Chairman?
06:18You attacked his credibility.
06:20We're not going to get into...
06:20That's not a personal attack.
06:22We're not getting into this right now.
06:23What we're going to get...
06:24He's a witness.
06:24His credibility matters, sir.
06:26You are out of order.
06:28You are out of order.
06:30You're done.
06:31You can't say anything else right now.
06:34You may finish answering your question.
06:36Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
06:37I think that the one lesson from this exchange is that it's possible that we can restore credibility
06:42in this institution if we can just get beyond the personal attacks.
06:46There were no personal attacks, Mr. Turley.
06:49You are a witness.
06:50Your credibility matters.
06:54You, sir.
06:55You, sir.
06:57You've lost your credibility with me.
07:00I gave that courtesy to everyone on this bench.
07:04You ask a question.
07:06If they wanted to continue to answer beyond the time limit, I said, time's expired.
07:10You may answer the question.
07:11That's my routine.
07:12That's what I did today.
07:13You challenged him, asked him a question.
07:16You wanted an answer.
07:18Your time has expired.
07:20He is answering the question.
07:22Mr. Chairman, I have a parliamentary inquiry.
07:22You don't like his answer.
07:26Because you don't like his answer, you want to shut him up.
07:29I have a parliamentary inquiry.
07:29What's your inquiry?
07:32My inquiry is when you offered at, when my time was up at 0-0 for him to answer the question,
07:39he went and answered the question.
07:41You then gaveled and said my time was up.
07:43That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
07:44You gaveled and said my time was up.
07:45That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
07:46I would like to know when my time is up and when he gets to continue answering my question.
07:51That is not a parliamentary inquiry?
07:53Your parliamentarian is about to tell you.
07:55That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
07:56He actually disagrees.
07:58He thinks it is a parliamentary inquiry.
07:59That's not a parliamentary inquiry.
08:01Why?
08:01I'm asking for the process question, the parliamentary, the process question as to when my time is up,
08:09which you allowed him to answer the question, you then gaveled and said my time has expired.
08:14Yeah.
08:15And then you then offered him to answer the question again, which he already had done.
08:20He was, no, he, no, sir.
08:21Let us, if we were to watch.
08:23I did it based on accusations that I was personally attacking him, which I was not.
08:27Excuse me.
08:27Excuse me.
08:29You are in, not only are you out of order, you're being incredibly rude.
08:35Here's the deal.
08:37I gave everybody the same courtesy.
08:40You didn't like where he was going.
08:42You began interrupting again, but your time was expired.
08:45He was trying to answer the question.
08:47You didn't like the answer.
08:49That is false.
08:49I'm happy to have this answer.
08:51No, no, no.
08:52That's what happened.
08:52I didn't like the accusation that I was personally attacking him.
08:56His credibility is relevant.
08:56I didn't say that until the third round when you interrupted.
08:59His person, his credibility.
09:00And you continue to interrupt.
09:01His credibility is irrelevant.
09:02You continue to be out of order.
09:03And then I asked you.
09:03You are out of order.
09:05I asked you, what am I personally attacking?
09:06And you said his credibility, and he is a witness.
09:09Yes.
09:09His credibility matters.
09:11You're out of order.
09:12You are so far out of order.
09:14I can really screw the universe.
09:14Well, you are not conducting this in a fair and equitable way.
09:18Sure, I am.
09:19Everybody got the same courtesy.
09:22You asked a question.
09:24They're going to finish answering.
09:26Everybody got that same courtesy.
09:27You interrupted him while he was giving the answer.
09:30That's why you got gaveled.
09:31You got interrupted.
09:32You interrupted this week.
09:34And then you said my time is up, which is when you would go to the next person.
09:38Listen, I gave the same courtesy to every member on your side of the aisle as I gave over here.
09:45When your time was expired, five minutes expired.
09:48If they were in the middle of answering the question, I let it go.
09:51Now, we can talk about that round and round all you want.
09:54That's what I did.
09:55That's what I do.
09:56Well, I look forward to you continuing to do that.
09:58Yeah, well, good.
10:00And I look forward to you being in order next time.
10:03So, Mr. Turley, you may continue to answer the question that he so much doesn't want to hear.
10:10I've never been so certain in saying I'm happy to move on.
10:14Very good.
10:16Now, I'll yield to myself.