Fox News analyst Andrew Napolitano, at one point a real judge, said out loud, on Fox News, that the tape of President Donald Trump talking about paying off a former Playboy model to keep her from telling her story appears to be evidence of fraud.
Fox News reader and purported human, Bill Hemmer, duly noted that Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani said that the tape doesn’t prove any crime. Surprisingly, Napolitano sounded like someone who had attended law school, and perhaps been a judge – or just like someone fairly smart who keeps track of the news: Per Raw Story.
“There doesn’t appear to be any indication of any crime but I think that’s the wrong analysis,” Napolitano said. “There is an indication of a fraud. And the significance of that is, if the client and the lawyer discuss the commission of a crime or discuss the commission of a fraud, there is no attorney-client privilege in that conversation, meaning the tape can be used by anybody.”
Right and wrong – it doesn’t by itself prove a crime. And, at least the judge didn’t buy into the “he didn’t commit a crime thing. But, then the judge did a little slight of hand, because your next question would be; “Fraud? That sounds like a crime, too.” And you would be correct in an election-law sense. So, Judge Napolitano avoids that whole subject:
“What’s the fraud?” Napolitano continued. “The discussion is about paying National Enquirer to pay McDougal $150,000 to buy her story and to lead her to believe that the National Enquirer is going to publish her story. But the real aim here is to bury the story by duping her into selling to them and then not publish it.”
“That failure to be truthful to her and the involvement of Donald Trump and Michael Cohen in that decision is the fraud,” he added.
He then goes on to explain that “civil fraud” is when one dupes someone else out of money.
Yes, it is that.
And if he thinks that “civil fraud” is an issue anyone is worrying or caring about with regard to these tapes, then I’m the Pope and Tsar of all the Russians, plus team captain.
The “judge” did just fine to that point, staying within his lanes, saying it was “bad” and clouding over the real issue, and then with one sentence, the wheels came off:
“There is no crime. It hurts the president in that there is fraud,” Napolitano concluded.
The fraud that Napolitano speaks of is the kind of “fraud” Trump commits when he reaches for his phone in the morning before going to the bathroom. He breathes fraud of this type, he can’t live without committing it. It is not the kind of fraud that anyone in reality is talking about.
There IS evidence of a crime here, and it has to do with fraud. We have covered it extensively on this site and not worth doing all over again, but this “expense” was paid purely to protect the campaign, and everyone knows it. Federal election law requires strict reporting of every campaign expense – and this telephone conversation is evidence of two men trying to figure out the best way to avoid having to report that expense, while getting what they want.
Don’t believe me?
Ask Trump as of maybe six months ago. That would have been the point when he initially denied knowing anything about these payments. Why would he lie about knowing about the payments? (Other than as an initial knee-jerk reaction to everything in his life, lie constantly.) Because he knew that these expenses had to be reported, which is also why Michael Cohen initially said HE paid the women, as a gift.
The phone call disproves all of that. They knew they had to get around campaign finance laws and bet the house on the fact that no one would catch them.
Big Picture:
Now, me personally, I’m convinced that the crime of the century is occurring now – ongoing – in that we have a Russian agent/mole as president of the United States. I don’t care about election law violations when the very security of our country and our alliances is at stake. Election law doesn’t register on my radar right now.
But, that does not mean it doesn’t matter. Each proven lie – the tapes prove without a doubt that Trump lied to everyone’s faces when he said that Cohen made the payments on his own and Trump whined that he knew nothing about them – each proven lie, makes it that much easier for the public at large to see Trump for what he is – a fraud, who would lie about anything.
I guess in this case, the good judge Napolitano is both right and wrong. It is evidence of fraud, just in more ways than the judge wants viewers to know.
