Fox host: “This call did not — this is my opinion — did not contain a smoking gun”
Published
Citation From the September 25 edition of Fox Business' Varney & Co.
STUART VARNEY (HOST): To me, bottom line, no smoking gun.
ASH WEBSTER (CORRESPONDENT): No.
VARNEY: I think the Democrats will make a great deal of the fact that it is not a verbatim transcript of the — of the — of the — what's it — transcript — it's not a verbatim.
WEBSTER: Of the conversation.
VARNEY: OK. Now, the whistleblower filed a complaint to the Department of Justice. The DOJ, the Department of Justice, has responded to that complaint.
WEBSTER: Well, the whistleblower said he did that because it was an “urgent concern," and that's an important phrase. Because in a four- or five-page response, the DOJ's Office of Legal Counsel said, summarizing, saying, “We conclude that the complaint submitted does not involve," quote, “an ‘urgent concern.' As a result, the statute does not require the DNI," the Director of National Intelligence, “transmit the complaint to the intelligence committees. However the letter and the attached complaint have been referred to the criminal division of the Department of Justice for appropriate review."
VARNEY: OK, to me, that's all sidebar stuff.
WEBSTER: It is.
VARNEY: That is all weeds stuff. This call did not — this is my opinion — did not contain a smoking gun, did not contain anything that could be used to impeach the president of the United States.