Fox News’s Judge Andrew Napolitano said President Trump wasn’t vindicated by the Republican memo alleging the Justice Department abused a surveillance program against a former Trump campaign adviser.
The former judge rejected Trump’s claim that the released GOP memo “totally vindicates” him in the probe into Russian election interference, calling it “the president being the president.”
“I don’t think he should have a false sense of confidence,” Napolitano said on Fox News’s “America’s Newsroom” on Monday. “I understand why he says things like that; it gins up his base and it may help him politically, but legally it’s of no moment.”
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Napolitano also said he wanted the Democratic memo countering the GOP document to be released.
“I think the Republicans overpromised and underdelivered with their memo. We’ll see if the Democrats do the same thing,” he said.
Trump called Napolitano a “very talented legal mind” during a press conference last year.
Napolitano had claimed at the time that a British intelligence agency had spied on Trump at former President Obama‘s request last year, but Fox News host Shepard Smith denied that the network had information to back up the allegation.
The House Intelligence Committee voted on Monday to release the Democratic memo countering the GOP document.
The Republican memo, authored by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes’s (R-Calif.) staff, alleges the Justice Department abused a surveillance program against former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page. The document was released Friday after Trump declassified it.
Democrats have rebutted the claims in the Republican document and have pushed to have their own memo about the situation released. Trump has five days to decide whether or not to release the Democratic memo.