Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano used some vivid imagery to explain the seriousness of the allegations facing Donald Trump, comparing Trump’s alleged direction of payoffs to porn star Stormy Daniels and former Playboy model Karen McDougal with the hiring of a hitman.

On Monday’s edition of The Tom Shillue Show, Napolitano shot down the idea that the allegations against Trump are overblown, telling Shillue that “a federal judge has already decided this is a crime, that’s the federal judge that accepted Cohen’s guilty plea, and the federal prosecutors have already decided they’re going to prosecute for this.”

“Now maybe they shouldn’t, but they’ve already decided to do it and they have the discretion to do it,” Napolitano added. “So I think those who are trying to downplay this and say it’s a bookkeeping error, when you’re talking about paying somebody money to remain silent about alleged inappropriate behavior, that is either a campaign contribution, which is unlawful, or a campaign expenditure which is unlawful. And Cohen pleaded guilty to it.”

Then, to illustrate Trump’s criminal culpability, Napolitano said “You know, if you hire me to shoot somebody, and I shoot them, under the law, you are as liable as if you pulled the trigger.”

Shillue said he didn’t think the public would tolerate Trump being prosecuted for these crimes, and Napolitano said “I agree with you on that, but that’s not what we’re talking about, we’re talking about the law.”

Napolitano went even further during an earlier interview on Fox News, telling Bill Hemmer that Trump’s criminal culpability could be greater than Cohen’s. He explained that while Cohen has pleaded guilty to paying off Daniels and McDougal, Trump would be on the hook for “conspiracy” to commit the crime, as well as of “procuring” Cohen to commit the crime, in addition to the crime itself.

Even knowing the seriousness of Trump’s alleged crimes, and believing that the prosecutors have some form of proof, Napolitano still supports Trump politically. But as he noted, prosecutors don’t care about politics, they care about the law. And Napolitano clearly doesn’t believe the law is on Trump’s side.

Watch the clip above, via The Tom Shillue Show.

[image via screengrab]

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