Andrew Napolitano had to calm down Fox News hosts after they jumped on the Trump-approved talking points about Michael Cohen's revelations in court Thursday.
November 30, 2018

No sooner had Donald Trump attacked Michael Cohen’s guilty plea about Donald Trump’s efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow than the Trump sycophants on Outnumbered began echoing the attack like a group of parrots.

From The New York Times:

At a surprise federal court hearing in Manhattan, Mr. Cohen admitted that he had minimized Mr. Trump’s role in efforts to build a Trump Tower in Moscow and gave the false impression to Congress that the negotiations had ended in January 2016, just before the Iowa caucuses.

In fact, Mr. Cohen admitted, the negotiations continued for at least another five months, until June, which was just after Mr. Trump had clinched the Republican nomination. Mr. Cohen also admitted that he agreed in early May to travel to Russia for meetings on the project and that he spoke to Mr. Trump about Mr. Trump, himself, making a trip, despite telling congressional investigators that he had not done so. The trips never happened.

Instead of considering why Cohen might have lied and how the plea reveals that Trump had financial interests in Russia, despite having claimed he “stayed away,” most of the cohosts focused on discrediting Cohen and diminishing the significance of his plea.

“Objective” anchor Harris Faulkner channeled Trump’s attack on Cohen as a liar who should not be believed. Of course, she never mentioned Trump’s mega-record of lying. From Mediaite's writeup of a prior discussion:

“You believe Michael Cohen, who has lied about other things, talking about the president and being a witness?” Faulkner asked [Democrat Antjuan] Seawright incredulously. “So there are different points that you believe from somebody who has a history of lying?”

Later, Andrew Napolitano, Fox News’ senior judicial analyst, joined the show. At about 4:08, Seawright asked an unfortunately vague question that seemed to pertain as much to special prosecutor Robert Mueller’s investigation as a whole as with the Cohen plea in particular. Nevertheless, Napolitano seemed to affirm both:

SEAWRIGHT: Judge, do you really think that at this point in the investigation, that somehow or another the special prosecutor’s going in the wrong direction? Because that seems to be the temperature from the right, "We need to shut this down, this has nothing to do with anything" – do you really think he’s going in the wrong direction with - at the rate he’s going?

NAPOLITANO: Not at this stage of the game, Antjuan. I happen to agree with you on that. I will also say – and I understand the impatience that a lot of my friends and colleagues have been expected. But having been involved in these cases – not, obviously, one involving the president – prosecutors don’t always get evidence in an orderly fashion and they don’t always get evidence from credible people. Michael Cohen – the president’s right – is not a credible person. He has twice pleaded guilty to crimes of deception – bank fraud and lying to Congressional investigators.

At that point, cohost Lisa “Kennedy” Montgomery interrupted to try to shoot down this contradiction of Dear Leader’s earlier talking point. “How does special counsel decide what aspects of Michael Cohen’s story to believe, or any of these witnesses, when they know that they have lied?” she “asked.”

“When they can corroborate what he told them,” Napolitano replied.

But before he could explain further, Faulkner jumped in to do her part. “They can corroborate the lies?” she “asked,” her voice dripping with sarcasm.

Napolitano continued, saying that prosecutors will use whatever they can “corroborate through other witnesses or forensic evidence like emails or phone calls or text messages."

Cohost Lisa Boothe tried her hand at discrediting Cohen’s plea. “But, Judge, is any of that information usable if Michael Cohen’s a liar and not credible?”

“If you back it up it is,” cohost Melissa Francis shot back, off-screen.

It’s great to see Fox promoting some truth about the Russia investigation. But you can rest assured that Sean Hannity and his band of prime time propagandists will ignore Napolitano and pretend that Trump is the big victim.

Watch what Hannity will pretend never happened on Fox above, from the November 29, 2018 Outnumbered. Here is the prior discussion where Harris Faulkner feigns concern about believing someone who admits they lied:

Crossposted from Newshounds.us
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