Andrew Napolitano Doubles Down On Wiretapping BS (VIDEOS, TWEETS)

By
Darrell Lucus
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Two weeks ago, Fox News Channel’s senior judicial analyst, Andrew Napolitano, touched off an international incident when he claimed that British intelligence wiretapped Donald Trump at Barack Obama’s behest. The fair and balanced network was forced to publicly knock down Napolitano’s claims on-air, then took Napolitano off the air for two weeks.


Well, Napolitano returned to the air on Wednesday–and showed he hasn’t learned his lesson. He not only stood by his groundless claims, but doubled down on them.

Napolitano dropped by “America’s Newsroom” to discuss reports that the FBI had built much of its corruption case against former Congressman Aaron Schock by persuading one of his staffers to turn informer. However, host Bill Hemmer apparently didn’t get the memo that Fox News could not stand by Napolitano’s wild assertion, because he asked Napolitano about it. Raw Story got a clip.

Hemmer casually asked Napolitano whether he still stood by his claims. With no hesitation, Napolitano replied, “Yes, I do–and the sources stand by it.” He breathlessly added that Americans have a right to know about this because a number of laws relating to government surveillance are due to sunset this fall. In the ensuing “great debate” over surveillance, Napolitano believes Congress and the American people should know more about this in order to make informed decisions.

Hemmer didn’t even break in once to point out that both British intelligence, as well as the FBI, have rejected Napolitano’s claims as groundless. Nor did he point out that Fox News could not substantiate them. Nope–he just casually remarked, “We’ll see how this story plays out in time.”

The fact that even Fox News couldn’t find any evidence to support Napolitano’s allegations should be enough by itself to show they’re baloney. However, we also have to consider the sources for this lunacy. One of them is Larry C. Johnson, the former CIA analyst best known for falsely claiming that Michelle Obama hurled a racial slur against whites. At Napolitano’s request, Johnson called The New York Times and revealed he was one of Napolitano’s sources.

Media Matters discovered that Johnson first peddled this claim on the slavishly pro-Kremlin “news” channel RT on March 4–hours after Trump’s unhinged tweetstorm claiming that he had been wiretapped. Watch here.

Johnson claimed that then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and then-CIA director John Brennan were “intimately involved” in an effort to sink Trump, and went as far as to collude with the GCHQ, the UK’s version of the CIA. Johnson said that some “very good friends” told him that the GCHQ monitored his communications and those of his aides, then passed that information on to Brennan. That interview, in turn, was picked up by Alex Jones’ Infowars and a number of other fake news and conspiracy theory peddlers. In other words, this story was floating around wingnutland for the better part of a week before Napolitano picked it up.

So let’s review. Napolitano’s primary source for these allegations is a man who is not only a proven trafficker of smears and innuendo, but saw fit to make this claim on a pro-Russian propaganda machine masquerading as a news channel. That story, in turn, spread around the wingnut world for a week before Napolitano spewed it. Throw in that Napolitano has a documented history of trolling in conspiracy theories. It’s hard not to conclude that Napolitano thought he could give this conspiracy theory the stamp of legitimacy. And apparently he still thinks he can do so, if he’s still promoting it after a week off the air.


As delusional as he may have sounded to the reality-based world, the Trump diehards absolutely loved it, based on the reaction from Twitter.

Napolitano claims that he is in the running for a Supreme Court seat if another vacancy comes up during Trump’s tenure. He would have been a filibuster waiting to happen long before he made this ridiculous claim. But if he still thinks he has a shot at being on the Supreme Court now, he’s even more delusional than Trump.

Maybe we should let this so-called judge know what we think about his temperament–or lack thereof. Let him have it–politely, of course–on Facebook and on Twitter.

(featured image courtesy Gage Skidmore, available under a Creative Commons BY-SA license)

Darrell Lucus
Darrell is a 30-something graduate of the University of North Carolina who considers himself a journalist of the old school. An attempt to turn him into a member of the religious right in college only succeeded in turning him into the religious right's worst nightmare--a charismatic Christian who is an unapologetic liberal. His desire to stand up for those who have been scared into silence only increased when he survived an abusive three-year marriage. You may know him on Daily Kos as Christian Dem in NC. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him on Facebook. Click here to buy Darrell a Mello Yello.

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