As the co-hosts of Fox & Friends rallied to defend their favorite president, as their colleague, senior judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, continued to confront them with the implication of Donald Trump in conviction of his former lawyer Michael Cohen.

“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,” Napolitano said. “The judge finding that the president ordered and paid for Michael Cohen to commit a crime.”

Hosts Steve Doocy and Brian Kilmeade responded by asking “what crime” and suggesting it wasn’t illegal because it was “out of his own pocket,” and not from the campaign.

“Donald Trump has said that that was not a campaign violation because it wasn’t involving the campaign. It was a damage control payment,” Doocy addded.

Napolitano then broke down why exactly Trump’s actions constitute a crime:

“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 — 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 then quickly pivoted to Reverend Jeremiah Wright, who’s “speaking out” made “candidate Obama look bad.”

“Someone walks up to Reverend Wright and says, ‘Hey, could you stop making the president — the senator look bad? He’s running for president,'” he added. “What does that have to do with the campaign? But yet, that might influence how I vote.”

Napolitano quickly informed the host that “would not be” an example of campaign violation.

The former judge-turned-pundit also addressed the John Edwards case, which many Trump supporters have used to claim the president is not implicated in Cohen’s crime.

“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,” he explained. Now, the jury didn’t believe the government and believed John Edwards.”

“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,” he concluded.

As for Cohen, he received a three-year prison sentence after being convicted in the Trump scandal hush money scheme.

“I felt it was my duty to cover up his dirty deeds,” Cohen said.

Watch above, via Fox News.

[image via screengrab]

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