Former independent counsel Ken Starr came to President Trump's defense on Friday, saying he has not obstructed justice.
Starr, who led the investigation into former President Bill Clinton, squared off against former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart on CNN after the two met for the first time. One key disagreement was about whether Trump has obstructed justice, with Starr arguing he hasn't.
"You can have the moral view of what obstruction is, and then you can have the legal view, what in fact constitutes the crime of obstruction," Starr said. He went on to argue that doing "what the president has the power to do," like firing the head of the FBI, isn't obstruction.
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Starr also said that Trump hasn't "shut down the investigation" and that for there to be obstruction, "you need to see action that actually results in the investigation not being able to be carried forward." Lockhart pointed to Trump's contradicting explanations for his firing of former FBI Director James Comey, but Starr argued that while the president has said some things that are "unwise," "being unwise doesn’t constitute a crime." Watch a portion of the debate below. Brendan Morrow
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