Former Independent Counsel Ken Starr said Thursday that witnesses who appeared in the House Intelligence Committee hearings this month havent come close to laying out impeachable offenses.
Starr, who served as lead investigator in the impeachment inquiry into former President Bill Clinton, said the testimony has come “nowhere close” to the bar set in the U.S. Constitution.
The testimony doesnt “reach the level of treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors,” Starr remarked on Fox News on Thursday.
“My assessment of the evidence [thus] far? Nowhere close. The evidence is conflicting and ambiguous,” he noted.
Starr said that European Union Ambassador Gordon Sondlands testimony was conflicting.
“Clearly in his opening statement, a quid pro quo. And then, he says later, Well, the president said, I dont want anything. Right? President Zelensky should just do the right thing. [Those are] the words from the president himself,” he continued.
“So, the record at the end of the day is likely to be ambiguous at best, conflicting at best … and you shouldnt charge and you cannot convict a sitting president on the basis of conflicting and ambiguous evidence and destabilize the American government,” Starr claimed.
The current loser in the impeachment inquiry has been the American people, he suggested.
“During the Clinton years and during the Clinton impeachment, voices such as Dianne Feinstein—shes still in the Senate—said, This is serious…misconduct, but do we really want to remove a sitting president from office? Lets censure him,'” Starr pointed out, adding that the current inquiry is “so terrible for the country.”
“So, at least, I hope the Democrats will have that conversation about we dont like the way foreign policy Read More – Source
