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Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid will take his quest for a federal investigation of a polygamous sect before the Judiciary Committee next week.
The Nevada Democrat requested and received the July 24 hearing before the committee, during which he will present evidence to support a federal crime investigation of The Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a spokesman said.
Jon Summers, who works in Reid's Washington, D.C., office, said Reid and others are set to testify.
"He is trying to step up federal enforcement against abuses that often occur in these polygamous sects," Summers said Monday.
Reid has pushed for several years to get the U.S. Attorney's Office to form a federal task force to look at polygamous sects and has renewed that effort because current Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey "seems more receptive to it," Summers said.
"We have the states working together to combat this, but assistance from the federal government could also be helpful to protect women and kids," he said.
Reid sent Mukasey a letter in April asking for his help in fighting "pervasive criminal activity" occurring in polygamous groups - specifically, the FLDS.
Over the past two decades, the states of Utah and Arizona have prosecuted cases of sexual abuse, bigamy and sexual conduct with minors involving FLDS members. The U.S. Department of Labor also has cited some FLDS businesses for violating child labor laws.
Reid contends that the FLDS are an organized crime syndicate that has engaged in bribery, extortion, fraud, embezzlement, witness tampering and labor violations. He wants the Justice Department to launch a federal racketeering investigation.
U.S. Attorney for Utah Brett Tolman has resisted that idea, saying that the federal government already is working with the states to investigate crimes in polygamous sects. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff also has pushed for a racketeering investigation of the FLDS.
"I think it is very significant and is following through with Senator Reid's commitment to get the federal government involved," said Shurtleff, who will testify before the committee.
Rod Parker, a Salt Lake City attorney and FLDS spokesman, said the Senate committee should give equal time at the hearing to sect members.
"The important point is if they really want to find out what is happening, they need to hear from both sides," Parker said. "They cannot take at face value these accusations. A lot of them are unfounded and the people making them don't know what they are talking about."
FLDS member and spokesman Willie Jessop was more blunt.
"I think the people they are calling [to testify] have the same amount of credibility as Rozita Swinton," said Jessop, referring to the Colorado Springs woman whose hoax call triggered a raid on a Texas ranch occupied by the sect.