Here’s what he had to say…
Ken Starr, the prosecutor in the Whitewater case that led to the impeachment of former President Bill Clinton, says impeachment is “doomed to fail.”
The former prosecutor spoke to Fox News host Neil Cavuto on Saturday and explained why President Donald Trump will not be removed.
STARR: I say that because impeachment is doomed to fail given what we know. The facts are flowing in. In the history of the country, obviously presidential efforts to impeach do not work.
But guess what, of the 62 impeachment proceedings eight have resulted in convictions. This will result in a conviction, why we on the impeachment train, we should be on the oversight train and quick calling it impeachment since there is something profoundly wrong under the Constitution to call it impeachment that we are on a formal impeachment inquiry.
With all due respect until the house of representatives votes as a body to conduct an impeachment inquiry or investigation, there is action by committees sanctions by the speaker so sounds like a structural point but we live by structure in the constitutional republic.
CAVUTO: How do they proceed to that next step? They are leaving it to the judiciary committee to get involved. What would change doing it the way you said?
STARR: There would be a formal action by the house resulting if there is any court fight, a federal judge or court of appeal or the Supreme Court does, this is the action of the peoples house, not of the speaker saying I hereby smile on what oversight committees are doing.
It would have the practical effect of centralizing the inquiry as opposed to the balkanized approach that is getting underway in the House Judiciary Committee as we saw in the Clinton inquiry years ago.
CAVUTO: A lot of democrats point out when the next hearing started, it was 7 out of 10 said it was a waste of time, a party, all piling on Richard Nixon.
There were revelations, discovery the — you know that history better than I. The Tide turned and that is what democrats seem to be counting on this go around.
STARR: That is right beside turned when it became clear that there were White House tapes as you said and that was not revealed by the House Judiciary Committee but an oversight committee.
CAVUTO: Somebody just blurted it out.
STARR: The course of a deposition as it came to be known. We now know the basic fact or at least we think we know the basic facts.
The president released the transcript, the interpretation of that conversation the president had …
CAVUTO: Anything in the transcript the troubles you? Forget about it being impeachable are not, kind of trying to get out of another foreign leader, essentially dirt on a potential opponent in the next election.
I don’t know if that warrants subpoena or not. I told you I was on a lot of legal shows. What do you make of that? Is that something that bothers you?
STARR: I think what the president said, he used a word that was very very wrong, reciprocity. We need reciprocity. That is not a crime.
It is poor judgment by the president. He should not have done that. He’s making the tie and I don’t think it is a crime. It is a better view and people say that is a crime.
It is not. Even if it is, the Clinton investigation and impeachment tells you can be guilty of perjury, you can be guilty of obstruction of justice.
There is no obstruction of justice and we are not going to remove this individual from office. The president has taken action the reflected instinct and sometimes his instincts get him into trouble.
I was troubled by that. When you look at I studied the transcript very briefly, the transcript is about this is great, we are working toward honest government and collaborating and here is something that is very unfortunate in the revelation of this.
Src: The Federalist Papers
