Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano on Thursday explained to “Fox & Friends” why Michael Cohen’s plea deal could have serious consequences for the president, The Daily Beast reports.
“A very, very telling statement came out of the judge’s mouth yesterday,” Napolitano said. “The judge finding that the president ordered and paid for Michael Cohen to commit a crime.”
He added, “That is very telling.”
Host Steve Doocy then asked, “What crime?”
“The intentional deception and failure to report campaign payments,” Napolitano said.
Doocy argued that “Donald Trump has said that that was not a campaign violation because it wasn’t involving the campaign. It was a damage control payment.”
Napolitano replied, “Unfortunately, the president wasn’t in the courtroom. And the people who were, the federal prosecutors, who had a statement from David Pecker, the guy that owns the National Enquirer, said it was for the campaign. The prosecutor said it was for the campaign. Michael Cohen said it was for the campaign. The president wasn’t there, maybe he should have had lawyers there.”
If the campaign had made “an honest mistake” then they could have corrected it, but “if you do this as a scheme to hide it, then it’s not a civil wrong, it’s a crime. That’s what the judge found yesterday.”
The former judge also dismissed the idea that the case of former Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards shows that Cohen’s crime does not implicate Trump.
“John Edwards’ case actually hurts the president. Because John Edwards’ lawyers made a motion to dismiss the indictment saying it’s not a crime and the judge published an opinion saying why it’s a crime. Now, the jury didn’t believe the government and believed John Edwards.
“But the fact of the matter is, any scheme to defraud the government by failing to report what must be reported is a crime,” he said.
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