Judge Andrew Napolitano, libertarian jurist and media commentator, was suspended indefinitely from FOX News after controversy sprung up regarding his claims that British intelligence likely wiretapped Donald Trump on behalf of the Obama Administration before the election.
The controversy originated from Napolitano’s Mar. 16 op/ed where he mentioned sources giving him intelligence indicating that British intelligence likely had wiretapped Donald Trump:
“Sources have told me that the British foreign surveillance service, the Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, most likely provided Obama with transcripts of Trump’s calls. The NSA has given GCHQ full 24/7 access to its computers, so GCHQ — a foreign intelligence agency that, like the NSA, operates outside our constitutional norms — has the digital versions of all electronic communications made in America in 2016, including Trump’s. So by bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints,” Napolitano said.
While these sentiments may seem benign considering the nature of the surveillance state as exposed by Edward Snowden’s NSA leaks from 2013 and the recent WikiLeaks “Vault 7” disclosures, Napolitano’s op/ed became politicized after Donald Trump referenced it at a press conference last week while being questioned about the alleged wiretapping.
“All we did was quote a certain very talented legal mind who was the one responsible for saying that on television,” Trump said. “I didn’t make an opinion on it, it was a statement made by a very talented lawyer –On Fox– So you shouldn’t be talking to me, you should be talking to Fox.”
As soon as the President spoke in favor of Judge Napolitano, the media took notice and began to ramp up the heat on FOX News. Ultimately, FOX News did not stand by their long-time employee and suspended him indefinitely for his commentary. It remains to be seen the network will reinstate the libertarian commentator.
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