Ken Starr, famously known as the independent counsel who led the investigation on the 1990s Whitewater scandal, made a bold prediction on Wednesday amid live testimony by Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, claiming that Democrats were likely already drawing up articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump .
According to Fox News , Starr cited the reason for his prediction as stemming from the revelation that Sondland claimed quid pro quo took place during Trump’s July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and that Sondland allegedly wasn’t provided access to documents that could have bolstered his testimony in front of the House Intelligence Committee.
“The articles of impeachment are being drawn up, if they haven’t already been drawn up…. This obviously has been one of those bombshell days,” Starr told Fox News host Bill Hemmer as the two analyzed Sondland’s live testimony.
Starr predicted that House Democrats will now attempt to accuse Trump of bribery after Sondland made clear that he believed a hefty U.S. military aid package meant for Ukraine was temporarily withheld in exchange for Ukrainian officials opening up an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden.
“We have now, a process crime, contempt of Congress, contempt of the House in the course of its impeachment,” Starr said.
Starr also shared his honest opinion about the first three opening days of live testimonies, essentially saying that Trump was in a good position as there weren’t any real bombshells dropped from any witnesses until Sondland’s testimony on Wednesday morning.
He pointed to testimony from Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman on Tuesday, explaining that he was meant to be the star witness for House Democrats, but said his credibility “seriously eroded” as the testimony played out.
“So, yesterday was a good day for the president. But, of course, all preceding, connecting the dots…All roads and all dots are leading to Gordon Sondland,” Starr said.
Will Republicans call Ken Starr a “partisan hack” now that he says today is a “bombshell” and that “we now know that the president, in fact, committed the crime of bribery”? pic.twitter.com/D3Ha9sjj0L
— Timothy Burke (@bubbaprog) November 20, 2019
As previously reported by The Inquisitr , though Starr has been highly skeptical of the impeachment inquiry into the president, he blasted Trump last week on the heels of the president’s tweet attack on one of the first witnesses to testify, U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch.
Trump tweeted an attack amid her live testimony, disparaging the former ambassador’s career — a move that prompted chairman Adam Schiff to interrupt the hearing to make Yovanovitch aware of the social media attack while asking for her response.
While Schiff and other Democrats equated Trump’s tweets to “witness intimidation,” Starr stopped short of echoing that accusation. He did say that Trump’s tweets exhibited “Extraordinarily poor judgment… Obviously this was quite injurious.”
