Former special prosecutor Ken Starr said the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry against President Trump lacks transparency and “is just wrong.”
“We’re outside. We’re behind this veil of ignorance because of the closed-door proceedings,” he said Tuesday. “There is absolutely nothing, nothing that needs to be done behind closed doors in these secret proceedings.
On Tuesday, Ukraine Ambassador Bill Taylor was scheduled to testify behind closed doors with House lawmakers.
“Because there is no doubt that someone’s going to go out and spin or give some version of what he has said. This is just wrong. It’s unfair. It’s just no way to run this process,” he said.
Starr said that should the impeachment process drag out, critics will start to blame Democrats for abusing their power for political gain during an election season.
“It’s going to drag on. It is not going to be... very quick,” he said. “Unfortunately for us the American people, this is all being done in a process that is just again not transparent, so we don’t have a way to evaluate until we see something public.”
Starr called on Republican lawmakers to keep insisting on full transparency during the impeachment process.
“The Democrats frankly are playing a very dangerous game in insisting on secrecy,” Starr added. “They have a constitutional power to do it but it is wrong, wrong, wrong. For the Republicans, I think they continue to say—and independents, and just patriots saying, ‘open up the doors.’ Ronald Reagan said ’tear down this wall.' And I would say to Adam Schiff and the speaker, open up the doors and let the sunshine in. Let us see. What you are trying to hide? This is the people’s business.”
Meanwhile, on Tuesday, Taylor is scheduled to talk behind closed doors with members of the Intelligence, Foreign Affairs, and Oversight committees—the three leading the inquiry into impeachment.
The former Army officer is scheduled to testify behind closed doors Tuesday in an inquiry trying to determine if Trump committed impeachable offenses by pursuing information that could help his campaign from Ukraine. Trump has denied the claims.
