“Judge” Napolitano Returns to Fox News, Says He Stands by Wiretapping Story That Led to International Incident

‘Yes I Do’

Andrew Napolitano, who still fancies himself a “judge” despite leaving the New Jersey bench for a fatter paycheck, told a tall tale two weeks in an attempt to support President Donald Trump’s lie that President Barack Obama had wiretapped him. Those comments, subsequently read by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer during a press briefing, led to an international incident between the Trump White House and British Intelligence.

So damaging were Napolitano’s remarks, Fox News anchor Shepard Smith took to the network’s airwaves to unequivocally state they could not verify his claims.

“Fox News cannot confirm Judge Napolitano’s commentary,” Smith told viewers Friday, March 17. “Fox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, in any way. Full stop.”

And yet, Fox News allowed “Judge” Napolitano to return to its airwaves today, and allowed him to retain his title as Senior Judicial Analyst. Immediately he doubled down, insisting his claim is true. 

Fox News’ Bill Hemmer Wednesday morning asked Napolitano if he still stands by his “reporting,” an interesting choice of words given Smith had read an official Fox News statement that called Napolitano’s claim “commentary.”

Napolitano replied: “Yes I do, and the sources stand by it and the American public needs to know more about this rather than less, because a lot of the government surveillance authorities will expire in the fall,” Variety reports.

“There will be a great debate about how much authority we want the government to have to surveil us and the more the American public knows about this the more informed their and Congress’ decisions will be,” Napolitano said, as if somehow that makes his claims, which, again, Fox News disavowed, and British Intelligence denied, any more credible.

What had Napolitano said?

Napolitano had claimed “three intelligence sources have informed Fox News that President Obama went outside the chain of command” to wiretap Donald Trump. “He didn’t use the NSA, he didn’t use the CIA, he didn’t use the FBI, and he didn’t use the Department of Justice. He used GCHQ.”

GCHQ is British Intelligence, which called Napolitano’s remarks “utterly ridiculous.”

Napolitano has not made himself any more credible. Given his penchant for conspiracy theories, it’s a wonder he’s still on the air.