Fox News’ chief judicial analyst disagrees with President Donald Trump’s contention that his son’s June 2016 meeting with Russian operatives in expectation of getting dirt on Hillary Clinton is standard practice in American politics.
Judge Andrew Napolitano said on America’s Newsroom Monday morning that Team Trump’s actions were “suspicious” and actually warranted a criminal investigation.
It is a crime to receive “something of value” from a foreign person or government, Judge Nap declared. So if Don Jr. had accepted damaging material about Clinton from the Russians, “that would have been a felony,” Napolitano explained. He added that “that would have been the completion of a crime.”
“Often, these nonviolent criminal events don’t happen all at once. They happen in stages,” Napolitano continued. “So the question is, is this enough to commence a criminal investigation? Answer: Yes. Because it is suspicious that they met with these people, that they didn’t consult a lawyer, that one of these people is a former KGB, GRU — that’s the Russian military intelligence arm.”
The judge surmised that there could be only two reasons why Kushner did not inform the FBI about the meeting when he filled out his national security application.
Either this “was a bumbling, foolish thing to do, or this was the beginning of some steps in furtherance of acquiring this information,” Judge Nap said.
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