The Fox News judicial analyst who became embroiled in controversy last week after making unsubstantiated claims that Britain wiretapped Trump Tower on behalf of former President Barack Obama has reportedly been pulled from the air. \u00a0Judge Andrew Napolitano, who is a regular on the Fox News Channel as a senior judicial analyst, has not appeared on air since Thursday, and was notably absent from the channel on Monday during the network\u2019s coverage of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch.<\/p>\n
Sources told the Los Angeles Times and CNN that Napolitano has been suspended indefinitely following the claim that was later denied by the network\u2019s own reporting. A Fox News spokesperson declined to comment to BuzzFeed News.<\/p>\n
The decision to bench Napolitano follows a series of tweets from President Trump on March 4, where he claimed without any evidence that Obama had wiretapped him.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s accusation has been discredited, with multiple government agencies having said there\u2019s no evidence, but just last week Napolitano stoked the fire by saying the British intelligence agency, the Government Communications Headquarters, \u201cmost likely\u201d gave Obama transcripts of Trump\u2019s calls. \u00a0\u201cBy bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints,\u201d the former New Jersey superior court judge wrote in a column on Fox News\u2019 website.<\/p>\n
Last Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer repeated Napolitano\u2019s claim from the White House briefing room when asked why Trump continued to make the accusation.<\/p>\n
In response, Britain\u2019s spy agency broke with protocol to make a public statement on the accusations, calling them \u201cutterly ridiculous.\u201d \u00a0\u201cRecent allegations made by media commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano about GCHQ being asked to conduct \u2018wire tapping\u2019 against the then-president-elect are nonsense,\u201d the agency said. \u201cThey are utterly ridiculous and should be ignored.\u201d<\/p>\n
Still, Trump repeated the claim again on Friday, when he met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying the alleged wiretapping meant the two had something \u201cin common.\u201d Merkel did not laugh at Trump\u2019s attempt at a joke.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy bypassing all American intelligence services, Obama would have had access to what he wanted with no Obama administration fingerprints,\u201d said Trump. He went on to describe the judge as being a \u201cvery talented legal mind.\u201d \u00a0Not long after Trump repeated the accusation, Fox News distanced itself from the claims.<\/p>\n
\u201cFox News knows of no evidence of any kind that the now-president of the United States was surveilled at any time, in any way \u2014 full stop,\u201d Shepard Smith said on air Friday.<\/p>\n
Still, Napolitano again defended his claims in a statement read on a Fox News program on Sunday. He said he \u201creported what the sources told me, reported it accurately and I do believe the substance of what they told me.\u201d<\/p>\n
By:\u00a0John Minchillo<\/p>\n
Source:\u00a0http:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/mbvd\/fox-news-benches-judge-napolitano-after-claiming-the-uk?utm_term=.hgD8Q775Z#.jiB1p225M<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"