It would not be surprising to learn that some of the weapons used by Hamas to attack Israel came from the United States intended for use in Ukraine, as there are "no inspectors general on the ground" there to track where the weapons are going, retired Judge Andrew Napolitano said on Newsmax, Tuesday.
"When the United States decided to send all the billions to Ukraine, Sen. Rand Paul and Congressman Thomas Massey each offered legislation that would have imposed restrictions on the resale of the equipment and would have interposed an inspector general on the ground in Ukraine to minimize corruption and to make sure that the military equipment was going to the military," Napolitano said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
However, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy "were in such a rush to get legislation passed that they wouldn't bring either of those proposals to the floor for a vote," Napolitano said.
As a result, there are no restrictions on the resale of the equipment and "no inspectors general on the ground in Ukraine, the most corrupt country in the West," Napolitano said.
He stressed, though, that such reports are "all anecdotal."
"We're hearing this because the conflagration in Israel and Gaza is so intense, no one's taking time to examine the equipment," Napolitano said. "But it seems more likely than not from sources to whom I am speaking, some public and some directly to me, that this equipment that Gaza is using was manufactured in the United States."
Napolitano blamed the issue on the lack of monitoring of the equipment and because of a "culture of corruption which is endemic, accepted, and expected in Ukraine."
Meanwhile, Kyiv is claiming that Russia transferred weapons of U.S. and European origin that were captured in Ukraine to Hamas as part of a strategy by Russia to discredit Ukraine in the Middle East, reported The Kyiv Post, quoting the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine's Ministry of Defense (HUR).
The aim, the publication reports, is to accuse Ukraine's military of providing Western-made weapons to the Palestinian terrorists and to spread the narrative through "specific expose publications in Western media outlets" to disrupt the flow of arms to the Ukrainian military.
Napolitano also discussed former President Donald Trump's motion to stop his civil fraud trial in New York City and his call to get back his licenses to engage in commercial real estate in the city.
"He won half," said Napolitano. "The appellate division decided not to stop the trial. It's almost unheard of for them to stop a trial midstream."
However, the court did say the civil trial's judge "may have gone a little too quickly on this in rescinding the licenses to engage in real estate," said Napolitano, calling the decision a "major victory" for Trump.
"Remember, he's already been found liable, so this trial is not about [whether] he did do it [but] about what should the punishment be," Napolitano said. "The most devastating witness for the government will begin testifying ... that's Alan Weisselburg, the former CEO of the Trump Organization. He is going to look at Judge [Arthur] Engoron and say, I know he did it because he told me to, and I orchestrated it."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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