BRIAN KILMEADE (CO-HOST): Judge, Michael Cohen got off easy. Three years, it's pretty good, he's got to be happy about that. 

ANDREW NAPOLITANO (FOX NEWS SENIOR JUDICIAL ANALYST): Well, nobody is happy about going to jail. 

...

NAPOLITANO: But, a very, very telling statement came out of the judge's mouth yesterday after he read all the documents and heard all the arguments from the government prosecutors in D.C., prosecutors in New York, Michael Cohen, and his lawyers, and that was about the president. The judge finding that the president ordered and paid for Michael Cohen to commit a crime. That is very telling. 

STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): What crime?

NAPOLITANO: The intentional deception and failure to report campaign payments --

KILMEADE: But out of his own pocket --

DOOCY: But Donald Trump -- Donald Trump has said that that was not a campaign violation because it wasn't involving the campaign. It was a damage-control payment. 

NAPOLITANO: Unfortunately, the president wasn't in the courtroom, and the people who were, the federal prosecutors, who had a statement from David Pecker, the guy that owns the --

DOOCY: National Enquirer. 

NAPOLITANO: -- National Enquirer said it was for the campaign, the prosecutors said it was for the campaign, Michael Cohen said it was for the campaign. The president wasn't there. Maybe he should have had lawyers there. So, if you make an honest mistake in failing to report something, or if you take $100,000 and you're only supposed to take $2,500, you can correct that by returning the money, paying a fine and correcting the report. If you do this as part of a scheme to hide it, then it's not a civil wrong, then it's a crime. That's what the judge found yesterday. 

KILMEADE: Well, if, like, for example, Reverend Wright is speaking out, making President Obama -- candidate Obama look bad, and he -- and someone walks up to Reverend Wright and says, “Hey, could you stop making the president -- the senator look bad? He's running for president.” What does that have to do with the campaign? But yet, it is -- how -- that might influence how I vote. 

NAPOLITANO: That -- that would not be a campaign --

KILMEADE: So this is no difference, this is a negative story the president wanted out because he was running for president. 

NAPOLITANO: I understand the president's argument. Unfortunately, the court and the prosecutors, who work for the president, disagree with him. 

AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Judge --

DOOCY: Yeah, but they went after John Edwards for essentially the same idea because there was money paid to a woman who he had had an affair with and had a child. That went to court, that went to trial, and he was found not guilty. 

NAPOLITANO: The John Edwards case actually hurts the president. Because John Edwards' lawyers made a motion to dismiss the indictment saying it's not a crime, and the judge published an opinion saying why it's a crime. Now, the jury didn't believe the government and believed John Edwards. But the fact of the matter is, any scheme to defraud the government by failing to report what must be reported is a crime, unless it's an honest mistake in which case it's not a scheme. 

Related: 

AP: ‘Dirty deeds’: Ex-Trump lawyer Cohen gets 3 years in prison

Previously:

Fox News desperately insists Michael Cohen’s (other) guilty plea means “absolutely nothing”

Fox & Friends worries about federal raid of Michael Cohen: What if Trump's tax returns were seized?

Fox News regular Brad Blakeman: “Michael Cohen's crimes are personal to him. They're not in connection with ... the president”