Fox News’s Napolitano blasts Trump legal team for ‘sophomoric view of the law’

Judge Andrew Napolitano blasted President Trump’s legal team during an appearance on Fox News Monday, arguing it was showing a “sophomoric view of the law” and that it was not serving the president well.

The senior judicial analyst for Fox News called the January memo from Trump’s legal team to special counsel Robert Mueller a “disgrace” and “very harmful” to the president’s case.

He also faulted the leaking of the letter, saying he did not understand why the president’s team would want it public given it had cited the wrong statute in one case and incorrectly interpreted an opinion in another.

“I don’t know how it got out,” Napolitano said. “I don’t know why the White House would have leaked it, as has been suggested, because it shows a sophomoric view of the law.”

{mosads} “They are not serving him well when they needlessly show their cards,” Napolitano added during the appearance on “The Story with Martha MacCallum.”

Napolitano faulted the memo for arguing that the president can’t be found to have obstructed justice, saying Trump’s team forgot that a president can be found to have obstructed justice by ending a prosecution for a “corrupt purpose.”

“They forgot that part,” Napolitano said. 

He also faulted Trump’s team for saying that the president can “interfere” with an FBI investigation, saying it had missed an amendment to the relevant statute from 2002 that said interference “with an FBI investigation intended to produce evidence is obstruction.”

Napolitano said it was difficult for him to offer the criticism because he knows the leading members of Trump’s legal team, Jay Sekulow and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani.

But he said they were not serving the president well.

Napolitano said Giuliani’s claim that Trump wouldn’t be indicted even if he shot former FBI Director James Comey was “absurd.”

“He could be arrested, charged, indicted, released, tried after he leaves the White House but no way would any law enforcement agency allow a murder or an attempted murder go uncharged because the person behind it was the president, and Giuliani knows that,” Napolitano said.

He also suggested that Trump may want Giuliani “causing this chaos” because it dominates the news cycles.