Impeachment Expert Blasts Pelosi, Says ‘Phony Impeachment’ Will Have Always Have ‘Asterisk’ 

Judge Ken Starr, who became a nationally known name over two decades ago when he led the investigation that resulted in President Bill Clinton’s impeachment, blasted House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over the weekend for how her party conducted their impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump.

Starr called Democrats’ efforts a “phony impeachment” that will always have a “footnote” or an “asterisk” in the history books.

Starr comments were made during a Fox News segment on Saturday when he replied to Democrat impeachment witness and Harvard legal mind, Noah Feldman. In a recent op-ed, Feldman said that Trump has not been impeached and, if Pelosi does not send the articles of impeachment to the Senate, “Trump could legitimately say that he wasn’t truly impeached at all.”

“What is your verdict?” Fox News host Ed Henry asked Starr.

RELATED: Vengeful Pelosi — He’ll Be Impeached Forever, No Matter What The Senate Does

‘Phony Impeachment’

“Well, unfortunately, Noah Feldman is a very creative guy as we saw in his testimony,” Starr said. “But an impeachment is an impeachment by any other name. And so there was a debate and there was a recorded vote. And that goes down in history. However, he’s making a really good point. It’s an impeachment with a footnote or with an asterisk. By the way it never went over to the Senate, which I think means it’s a bit of a phony impeachment.”

“Right, so is it Nancy Pelosi having some buyer’s remorse?” Henry asked. “I know you can’t get inside her head. But why in the world after going out here and actually voting on these articles and passing two of them, why not send it over to the Senate?”

“She appears to be intruding into the powers of the Senate which is ironic and extreme,” Starr replied. “So, I think there is an abuse of House power in the way that this process unfolded in the House and riding roughshod over minority rights and ultimately the rights over the president. And now she is trying to essentially tell the Senate how to do its business: here’s the deal, Senator McConnell, leader McConnell — and it’s just wrong constitutionally. It’s not going to work. But it is wrong constitutionally.”

“What do you think would be a smart way forward for Senator Mitch McConnell in the Senate?” Henry asked in a follow up question. “Does he just say, ‘Look, there may be precedent. We have to wait.’ But nowhere in the Constitution we’re told does it say that the Senate has to wait for impeachment managers to be named? Should Mitch McConnell just have the trial and get the president acquitted?”

“I don’t think so. Because he’s going to have to appoint managers, he’s going to have to appoint prosecutors,” Starr responded. “So he is doing it exactly the right way. I gather he’s going to say we are going to go forward with the business of the Senate and not play games.”

RELATED: POTUS Says He Trusts McConnell To Choose Witnesses For Trial; Won’t Intervene

Concern impeachment is being ‘trivialized and used as a political tool’

The Democrats’ impeachment effort against Trump is the first time in U.S. history that this process has been so partisan that not a single Republicans joined the Democrats, though some Democrats voted against it.

The House vote was also the first time impeachment has been pursued without the president actually being accused of any crimes.

Attorney General William Barr recently pointed this out in an in interview.

“I think we have to be careful about trivializing the process and they put in a hurdle of high crimes – of treason, bribery, and other high crimes,” Barr said regarding impeachment on Fox News. “The articles of impeachment here do not allege a violation of law and it looks as if it’s going to be along partisan lines – I think – I’m concerned about it being trivialized and used as a political tool.”