Ken Starr on Marie Yovanovitch's testimony
Former Whitewater Special Counsel Ken Starr reacts on 'Fox & Friends: Weekend' after former Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch testifies on Capitol Hill.
The Democrats' impeachment inquiry is essentially a "coup d'etat in the House of Representatives," former independent counsel Ken Starr said Saturday.
The probe to date is "far removed" from the drama of the Watergate scandal, Starr said on "Fox & Friends: Weekend." Also appearing on the show was a member of President Trump's legal team, Jordan Sekulow.
In the Democrats' current investigation, there has been nothing to match the spellbinding testimony of John Dean, the former White House counsel for President Richard Nixon.
KEN STARR SAYS IMPEACHMENT HEARINGS ARE NOT LIKE WATERGATE: 'THERE IS NO JOHN DEAN'
"Here's John Dean testifying dramatically: 'I'm in the Oval Office and I am participating in a criminal conspiracy with the president of the United States,'" said Starr, who headed the Whitewater investigation into allegations against President Clinton. "Here we have a witness who does not have a connection to the president ... and knows of no crime. So it's really night and day."
On Friday, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch testified publicly before the House Intelligence Committee for six hours. But Yovanovitch told Utah Republican Rep. Chris Stewart that she could supply the panel with no information regarding criminal activity or bribes that the president may have been involved with.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who heads the committee, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., initiated the probe after a whistleblower complaint to the intelligence community inspector general alleged wrongdoing stemming from the president's July 25 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy. Trump is accused of leveraging aid to Ukraine in exchange for dirt on a political rival, an alleged quid pro quo the president has denied.
Public hearings began Wednesday after the House voted to approve a resolution formalizing the impeachement inquiry. Republicans had been calling for transparency in the Democrat-led process for weeks, eventually storming a closed-door deposition in a secure room.
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"This goes back to the entire process point," Starr said. "And, I must say, when you depart from tradition you may be doing the right thing, you may be reforming, or you may be really fouling up."
"And so, the Democrats decided to depart radically from tradition and to make Chairman Schiff the new head of the Judiciary Committee," he told "Fox & Friends" host Pete Hegseth.
"There has essentially been a coup d'etat in the House of Representatives. And so, when we look at each procedure, we see some departure from the past," Starr stated.
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