'It's over'! Ken Starr says final battle is coming as articles of impeachment against Trump are being drawn up after Sondland 'bombshell'
Former President Bill Clinton's impeachment investigator Ken Starr has said the testimony of Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland meant articles of impeachment would now be drawn up by House Democrats. He also explained what he believed to be House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff's claim that he had enough proof for the House to impeach the president.
"Substantively, what we heard from the chairman just now, is, 'It's over. We now know' - I mean, this is his position, 'We now know that the president, in fact, committed the crime of bribery, there's something of value.' That's litigable, but I think 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", said Starr.
According to him, the Democrats will now allege obstruction by the Trump administration after Sondland claimed that he was not allowed to access documents that could have aided his testimony, Fox News reports.
In his opening remarks Wednesday, Sondland testified that "everyone was in the loop" and that "it was no secret." He said he believed there was a "potential quid pro quo" when Trump requested President Zelensky to investigate the Bidens before releasing U.S. military aid to Ukraine.
Sondland was "vehement" in his claim that he was denied "access to records to help him", Starr said.
"We have now, a process crime, contempt of Congress, contempt of the House in the course of its impeachment", he claimed, saying Democrats will hold Sondland's testimony as proof that President Trump "committed the crime of bribery."
Furthermore, Starr said, "the president had done extraordinarily well" through the first three days of testimony as the witnesses were not able to lay out a crime.
Speaking of Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who testified on Tuesday, Starr said he was "supposed to be very important against the president", but faltered as "his credibility as a witness was seriously eroded throughout the morning."
"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", he asserted.
However, Starr noted the case for impeachment still remains "muddy [and] murky", especially when it is based on evidence that is "subject to interpretation." Moreover, the former Whitewater Independent Counsel said it was a "shocking omission" on Sondland's part to not include the details of a phone conversation with Trump about Ukraine in his opening statement.
"President Trump, when I asked him the open-ended question, what do you want from Ukraine? His answer was 'I want nothing. I want no quid pro quo. Tell Zelensky to do the right thing.' That's all I got from President Trump," Sondland recalled.