President Trump could be as criminally culpable as his former fixer, Michael Cohen, according to Judge Andrew Napolitano.
Napolitano, a senior Fox News legal commentator, cautioned Trump Monday against claiming he was in the clear after he seemed to be referenced in a sentencing memo last week regarding Cohen. New York federal prosecutors outlined in the memo how Cohen took steps during the 2016 campaign to prevent women from going public with allegations of having extramarital affairs with Trump decades ago “in coordination with and at the direction of individual one.” “Individual one” is widely believed to be the president.
“Federal prosecutors in New York City and a federal judge in New York City have found that what Michael Cohen did was a federal crime, and that there is evidence to substantiate the conclusion that the president ordered him to do it and paid him for it,” Napolitano told Fox News. “That makes the president as criminally culpable as he. If you hire me to shoot somebody and I shoot that person, you are as liable as if you had pulled the trigger.”
As it stands, Trump is guilty of nothing. It must be proven either in a court or via the impeachment process that Trump committed a crime or an impeachable offense.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York on Friday recommended that Cohen spend a “substantial” amount of time in prison following his guilty plea in August to counts of campaign finance violations, tax fraud, and bank fraud. The charges stemmed from an investigation prompted by a referral from special counsel Robert Mueller.
Napolitano on Monday offered a range of free advice to Trump.
“Do not take this lightly. Do not claim this exonerates you. Do not mock the people that have the power to indict you. This is very serious stuff,” he said.
