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Judge Napolitano pens blistering attack: Trump’s call ‘manifests criminal and impeachable behavior’

October 3, 2019 | | Print Article
(Video screenshot)

Judge Andrew Napolitano shocked Fox News’ viewers this week by penning a blistering op-ed attacking President Donald Trump and accusing him of committing impeachable offenses.

“Trump’s call with Ukraine president manifests criminal and impeachable behavior,” the op-ed’s blunt headline reads.

The piece concerns the whistleblower non-scandal, which itself centers on debunked allegations from congressional Democrats and their media allies that the president had used pressure and a quid pro quo offer to try and persuade Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into launching an investigation into 2020 contender former Vice President Joe Biden’s alleged corruption.

“The criminal behavior to which Trump has admitted is much more grave than anything alleged or unearthed by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and much of what Mueller revealed was impeachable,” the actual piece reads, echoing the commentary of far-left pundits.

“The whistleblower’s revelation caused the White House to release a near-verbatim summary of the conversation between the two presidents. By releasing it, Trump has admitted to its accuracy. In it, Trump asked Zelensky for dirt on former Vice President Joe Biden, who at this writing is Trump’s likely Democratic opponent in the 2020 presidential election.”

But, the president did not ask for dirt on Biden. He asked Zelensky to look into recently surfaced evidence suggesting that five years ago, then-VP Biden forced Ukrainian officials to fire a prosecutor who’d been looking into a corruption-linked energy firm that had hired his son.

Read the transcript to see for yourself:

“There’s a lot of talk about Biden’s son, that Biden stopped the prosecution and a lot of people want to find out about that so whatever you can do with the Attorney General would be great,” it clearly shows Trump saying. “Biden went around bragging that he stopped the prosecution so if you can look into it… It sounds horrible to me.”

The president has for his part repeatedly made it clear to the media that the intent of his request had been to root out corruption, not hurt Biden in the 2020 race.

“Trump also admits to holding up $391 million in aid to Ukraine — $250 million in the purchase of already approved and built military hardware and $141 million in a congressionally authorized grant,” Napolitano’s factually inaccurate op-ed continues.

“This is aid that Trump’s own secretaries of state and defense, his own director of national intelligence and director of the CIA, and his own National Security Council unanimously asked him to release.”

The implication that Trump held up the military aid to force Zelensky’s hand is inaccurate. Multiple reports have confirmed that the Ukrainian president and his top officials weren’t made aware of the hold-up til a whole month after the call had even occurred.

After ranting and raving about the president’s foreign policy decisions, Napolitano eventually concludes his piece by arguing that the things that Trump didn’t do are impeachable — and thus he must be impeached.

“Federal law defines as criminal the solicitation of aid – anything of value – for a political campaign from a foreign national or foreign government, whether the thing of value arrives or not,” the piece reads. “Federal law also prohibits bribery and attempted bribery, which is defined as withholding the performance of an official duty conditioned upon the personal receipt of a thing of value, whether the thing of value arrives or not.”

“The law further prohibits intimidating witnesses, which is defined as the use of language designed to deter witnesses from giving testimony, whether the intimidation is successful or not.”

The president did not solicit something for a political campaign, the president did not attempt a bribery and the president has not intimidated any so-called “witnesses.” The president has merely requested that he be allowed to confront the whistleblower.

It’s perhaps because of these factual inaccuracies that so many Fox News viewers and fans on social media have reacted to the judge’s op-ed with eye rolls, disdain, and mockery:

Ironically, the op-ed was published only hours after conservative radio show host Rush Limbaugh blasted Fox News for acting like the “Fox Never-Trumper Network.”

“You know, Fox really ought to change the name of the network from the Fox News Channel to the Fox Never Trumper Network, because that’s who’s getting the highlights, and they’re bringing in Democrats like Donna Brazile.”

In a video uploaded last week, Napolitano also accused the president of committing “brazen acts of corruption.”

Look:

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Vivek Saxena
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