This is how bad things are looking for Donald Trump Jr. — even his dad’s favorite Fox News personality thinks he will be indicted.
As the Russia investigation has ramped up in the last two weeks — with new charges that Paul Manafort lied to investigators, a new guilty plea for Michael Cohen, and sentencing advisement for Michael Flynn that shows he is being very helpful to Robert Mueller’s investigators — many believe that the president’s eldest son is the next target. Reports have speculated that Mueller will charge Trump Jr. for lying to the FBI, and a Vanity Fair report last month claimed that Trump Jr. has privately been telling people close to him that he expects an indictment.
Andrew Napolitano apparently does as well. The Fox News pundit, a favorite of President Donald Trump, said this week that he too expects Trump Jr. to be indicted by Mueller’s team. As the Washington Examiner noted, Napolitano believes the recent developments in the Russia investigation look very bad for President Trump and his son.
“The president himself should be extremely uncomfortable about this,” Napolitano said.
Other reports have noted that Mueller’s investigation appears to be reaching its final stages, so if either Trump or Trump Jr. are implicated in any way, it could be coming out very soon. Though Mueller’s team has gained a reputation for not leaking any information, there does not appear to be any indication of who could be the next target or what help Flynn may have offered.
As the Daily Beast noted, there don’t appear to be many more Fox News personalities with as much sway over President Trump as Andrew Napolitano. The president frequently parrots Napolitano’s reports, even when it’s directly opposed to his own official policy stances. Earlier this year, Napolitano spoke out against legislation to renew FISA (the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act), prompting Trump to tweet against the renewal.
Trump’s decision to side with the Fox News personality over his own White House led to chaos, the report noted.
“The presidential tweet, which contradicted official White House policy, sowed panic, confusion, and anger among congressional Republicans who were voting on the issue that day in the House,” the report claimed.
“It was only after White House staffers and House Speaker Paul Ryan staged an intervention that Trump reversed himself and suddenly realized that he actually supported the legislation.”
NEW: Fox News analyst Judge Napolitano says he expects Trump Jr. to be indicted https://t.co/a73yMAYVvE
— The Daily Beast (@thedailybeast) December 5, 2018
There has not been any public indication from Robert Mueller’s team that Donald Trump Jr. could be facing indictment.