Ken Starr: No Obstruction Case Against Trump Yet — ‘Difficult to Prove’

Thursday on CNN’s “New Day,”  former Solicitor General and former Whitewater independent counsel prosecutor Ken Starr said he didn’t think there was much of a case for obstruction of justice to be levied against President Donald Trump.

Starr told co-host Alisyn Camerota based on the evidence available thus far such a charge would be “difficult to prove.”

Partial transcript as follows:

CAMEROTA: So you’ve heard “The Washington Post” reporting that now it seems to — Bob Mueller’s investigation seems to have widened. Not just Russia meddling, not just possible collusion, but whether or not the president engaged in some sort of obstruction of justice involving pressing James Comey to back off Michael Flynn, et cetera. Do you think there’s a case there?

STARR: It’s too soon to tell from what I have seen and, of course, we don’t know a whole lot. The answer is no, but it is going to be investigated and so we will soon know. Obstruction of justice is really a very hard crime to make out. It’s not just you want the investigation to go away, you suggest that the investigation goes away. You’ve got take really affirmative action.

And Director Comey said in his testimony that even though the expression was “hope” he took it as a directive. But what we know is he didn’t do anything about it, right? That is, he did not dismiss the investigation or curtail the investigation. There’s an expression of hope so it becomes an interpretation and I think it’s just a very hard case to make out and, you know, that’s a good thing for all of us. Crimes should be difficult to prove.

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