A member of the independent counsel team that recommended the impeachment of President Bill Clinton says that President Trumps attempts to obstruct justice are blunter by a thousandfold than anything Clinton did and more than justifies the House Judiciary Committee opening impeachment proceedings.

In an interview with the Yahoo News podcast Skullduggery, Paul Rosenzweig, who served as a senior counsel to Ken Starr, said that a significant number of his former colleagues from the independent counsel office share his views although notably not Starr himself.

My view is that theres ample reason right now for the House Judiciary Committee to begin an impeachment inquiry and if it were up to me, I would recommend them to impeach, said Rosenzweig. I mean, if I were called to testify today at the first of those hearings, I would say that Trumps obstruction of justice and frankly, more importantly, Trumps dereliction of duty in failing to address the issue of Russian interference in our electoral processes, are by themselves grounds for his impeachment.

Add to that, his recalcitrance in responding to [special counsel Robert] Mueller and his stonewalling of congressional investigations and the case becomes much more compelling than that which attended the [impeachment] recommendation with respect to Clinton, Rosenzweig added.

The views of Rosenzweig and others on Starrs team could be a factor in the debate as House Democrats weigh whether to formally initiate an impeachment inquiry into the president. The Starr reports referral to Congress in September 1998 outlined 11 possible grounds for impeachment of Clinton growing out of his attempts to conceal his sexual affair with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. Five of the recommended articles accused Clinton of attempting to obstruct justice; a sixth asserted that he failed to fulfill his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws by, among other actions, invoking groundless executive privilege claims to try and prevent some of his aides from testifying.

It is a pattern of conduct that, as Rosenzweig sees it, has been repeated in spades by Trump.

The Starr referral cited as evidence of obstruction Clintons refusal to be questioned by Starrs prosecutors for seven months thereby delaying the Lewinsky investigation until the independent counsel threatened the president with a subpoena.

Trump refused to be questioned by Mueller at all, agreeing only to answer written questions relating to issues that arose during the 2016 campaign, but none at all relating to his conduct as president. After reviewing those responses, Muellers team found them inadequate and sought to follow up with additional questions a request that Trump refused.

Another of the potential articles of impeachment Starr referred to Congress cited, as evidence of obstruction, Clintons lies to his staff denying any relationship with Lewinsky, contending that those lies were then repeated by those aides to the grand jury and the public. But Mueller found that Trump did more than that: He directed aides, former deputy national security adviser K.T. McFarland and former White House counsel Don McGahn, to write false memos that could be used to mislead investigators.

Rosenzweig noted that, at the time, he viewed one of the more serious abuses by Clinton his questioning of his secretary, Betty Currie, the day after he denied having sexual relations with Lewinsky during his civil deposition in the Paula Jones sexual harassment lawsuit. Calling her to the White House on a Sunday, Clinton asked Currie a series of leading questions intended to bolster his denial of a relationship with Lewinsky and potentially shape her testimony, making comments to her along the lines of you could see and hear everything when he met with Lewinsky and we were never really alone.

These comments, Rosenzweig said, amounted to one of the most palpably aggressive efforts to control the narrative, tamper with witnesses, create a false impression for the American people and a false impression for the investigation, Rosenzweig said.

But, he added, Trumps efforts are blunter by a thousandfold. He doesnt even have the sophistication and subtlety of Bill Clinton.