Trump-Mueller report contains damaging information on president, says Fox News' Judge Napolitano: 'There is something there'
A Fox News legal analyst has warned viewers Robert Mueller’s report “undoubtedly” contains evidence of collusion with Russia and an attempt by Donald Trump to obstruct justice.
Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey superior court judge whose views have previously been parroted by Mr Trump, also said the document ran to 700 pages, a detail previously unknown and yet to be confirmed by the Department of Justice.
A four-page summary of the report written over the weekend by attorney general William Barr cleared the Trump campaign of conspiracy and concluded there was insufficient evidence to prosecute the president with obstruction.
“In the 700-page summary of the 2 million pages of raw evidence, there is undoubtedly some evidence of a conspiracy, and some evidence of obstruction of justice,” Mr Napolitano told Fox Business on Wednesday, adding Mr Barr would have concluded it failed to pass the standard of reasonable doubt.
He continued: “Once the 700 pages comes out, Democrats and the president’s other opponents will have a field day with what is in there.
“If there were no evidence of conspiracy, and no evidence of obstruction, the attorney general would have told us so. He didn’t, so there is something in there that the Democrats and opponents of the president want to see. They will see it, and they will make hay out of it.”
The judge’s comments come amid a concerted effort by the White House and Republicans to cast the special counsel’s findings as a total exoneration of the president, despite the fact the report is yet to be released.
Mr Trump and his allies, including many Fox pundits, are also using Mr Barr’s summary to double down on their attacks against mainstream media outlets who reported on Mr Mueller's investigation.
The Fake News Media has lost tremendous credibility with its corrupt coverage of the illegal Democrat Witch Hunt of your all time favorite duly elected President, me! T.V. ratings of CNN & MSNBC tanked last night after seeing the Mueller Report statement. @FoxNews up BIG!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)
“For two years they’ve indulged in an orgy of hatred (for Trump) that coloured absolutely everything,” one Fox presenter said, in a clip tweeted by Mr Trump on Wednesday evening.
Earlier on Wednesday, House judiciary chairman Jerrold Nadler revealed Mr Barr had told him in a phone call he would not commit to turning over Mr Mueller’s report in full to Congress, and would almost certainly miss a 2 April deadline set by House Democrats.
“I’m very disturbed by that,” Mr Nadler told reporters, adding the date was a “hard deadline”.
Backing up Mr Napolitano’s claim, Mr Nadler said the report’s length was “very substantial” - confirming it was fewer than 1,000 pages.
