Fox News' Andrew Napolitano: Mueller is saying he 'would have' indicted Trump if he could

Andrew Napolitano
(Image credit: Aaron P. Bernstein/Getty Images)

Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano believes Special Counsel Robert Mueller's first public statement in two years reinforces the idea that he had enough evidence to indict President Trump.

Napolitano spoke on Fox Business after Mueller's press conference, Mediaite reports, and concluded that the special counsel "effectively" said, "We had evidence that [Trump] committed a crime but we couldn't charge him because he's the president of the United States ... the president can't be indicted. Otherwise, we would have indicted him." Napolitano also characterized Mueller's statement as suggesting that "we could not say that he did not commit a crime ... because we believe he did."

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Napolitano also spoke on Fox News and said that the White House "can't be happy" about Mueller's statement because he "opened up a can of worms of Democrats yet again" by suggesting Trump only wasn't charged with a crime "because he's the president."

Trump isn't the only one coming out of this press conference looking bad, though. Napolitano described Mueller's statement as being a "parting shot" at Attorney General William Barr, noting that Mueller's statement is "far harsher" than anything Barr has said and is "hurtful" to the attorney general.

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Brendan Morrow

Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.