Fox's Napolitano Is “Convinced” Flynn Scandal Shows “There Were Efforts To Destabilize” Trump
Andrew Napolitano: “Barack Obama Was Aware Of This”
Written by Media Matters Staff
Published
From the May 9 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends:
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): [Former U.S. Deputy Attorney General] Sally Yates and [former Director of National Intelligence] James Clapper in the hot seat on the Hill. They were grilled over the unmasking of Americans in intelligence reports as senators demand to know who leaked the classified information to The Washington Post.
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Here to react is Fox News senior judicial analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano. And judge, from what we heard yesterday, that is the only thing we know -- the only law we know was broken was somebody took that secret information and leaked it to the Post.
ANDREW NAPOLITANO: Well, we also know that the Obama administration was listening to every word that [former National Security Advisor] General [Michael] Flynn was uttering in Trump Tower. And we know from General Clapper, James Clapper, the head of the DNI, that British intelligence alerted them to things that General Flynn was saying because they had been looking at the Obama -- they had been looking at Donald Trump from before he was a candidate and then president-elect Donald Trump.
BRIAN KILMEADE: They refer to an article in The Guardian as citing British intelligence.
NAPOLITANO: Yes. Yes. I think this shows a couple of things. One, there is too much raw intelligence data in the hands of too many people that can use it for bad purposes. Because, two, the political use of raw intelligence data is a very, very serious crime and is a threat to the freedom in the United States of America. There is too much spying, too much information, and too many people have it. Remember the concept of unmasking. The government listens to a conversation between an American and a foreign person. The government decides it needs to know who the American is. Do you know how many times that was done when the American was somebody in the Trump administration? 2,000 times, according to the information provided by General Clapper yesterday.
EARHARDT: But would it be easy to find out who knew that information about the unmasking of General Flynn in December when he talked to the ambassador?
NAPOLITANO: Yes. Yes. We should note that --
EARHARDT: So they can find out who did this?
NAPOLITANO: -- there should be electronic fingerprints when unmasking occurs, meaning the human being that goes into the raw data to extract the true name of the person whose words were recorded on a transcript or a telephone conversation, would leave an electronic fingerprint. We don't know any of that. We also don't know who sent all of this information to The Washington Post in an attempt to destabilize a validly elected administration, Donald Trump. I'm convinced there were efforts to destabilize him at the outset, and it appears that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, was aware of this.
Previously:
Shep Smith: “Fox News Cannot Confirm Judge Napolitano’s Commentary"