Fox News senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano called President Trump’s acquittal a “personal victory” for the president but a “legal assault on the Constitution” in a scathing op-ed published on Thursday.
“Trump will luxuriate in his victory. But the personal victory for him is a legal assault on the Constitution,” Napolitano wrote in the op-ed on FoxNews.com. “The president has taken an oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution. Instead, he has trashed it.”
“How? By manipulating Senate Republicans to bar firsthand evidence and keep it from senatorial and public scrutiny, Trump and his Senate collaborators have insulated him and future presidents from the moral and constitutional truism that no president is above the law,” he continued. “Somewhere, Richard Nixon is smiling.”
Napolitano said on Fox News in December that he would have voted to impeach Trump if he were a member of the House of Representatives.
The commentary from the former New Jersey Superior Court judge came one day after Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) voted to convict Trump of abuse of power in the Senate trial, making him the only GOP senator to break ranks with his party.
Senate Republicans voted to acquit Trump of the abuse of power charge in a 52-48 vote, with Romney joining all Democrats in voting to convict Trump. The second article, accusing Trump of obstruction of Congress, failed in a party-line 53-47 vote.
During appearances Thursday at the National Prayer Breakfast and in extended remarks delivered at the White House, Trump held up several newspapers with headlines of his acquittal.
Trump’s approval numbers have risen 10 points in Gallup since impeachment proceedings began in October. He now sits at 49 percent approval with 270 days until Election Day.