Andrew P. Napolitano
Articles by Andrew P. Napolitano
Donald Trump and the rule of law
Last week, The New York Times published a scathing critique of Donald Trump — the man and the president. The Times said the critique was written by a senior Trump administration official who insisted on remaining unnamed. This bitter and harsh opinion piece, which portrays the president as dangerous to the health of the republic and his White House as slouching toward dysfunctionality, has understandably infuriated him. Published September 12, 2018
Trump’s presence was in that church as powerfully as if he had physically been there
Last week, I was intrigued by all the fanfare attendant upon the national farewell to the late Sen. John McCain. I have written in this space that Mr. McCain and I were friends who spoke many times, but generally only about the issues upon which we agreed — abortion, immigration and torture. Published September 5, 2018
John McCain and me
About four years ago, I was browsing through one of Manhattan's last remaining independent bookstores, when my cellphone rang. I didn't recognize the incoming telephone number, with its 202 area code, but I assumed it was a Fox News colleague from our Washington bureau. Published August 29, 2018
Interviewing the president
When federal prosecutors are nearing the end of criminal investigations, they often invite the subjects of those investigations to speak with them. Published August 8, 2018
Trump sabotaged by his own lawyer
In the past week, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, now the chief lawyer and principal spokesman for President Donald Trump's legal team, has offered arguments more harmful to Mr. Trump than helpful. In a series of combative, disjointed and logically challenged television rants, Mr. Giuliani has essentially argued that Mr. Trump did not engage in any conspiracy with the Russians for them to provide help to his campaign and that even if he did, it wasn't criminal. Published August 1, 2018
Remembering a father, husband and veteran
Last week, in Ridgewood, New Jersey, a 92-year-old unsung American patriot lost his battle with congestive heart failure. He had been surrounded by his wife and children and their spouses and their children. He left this vale of tears in his wife's arms, peacefully and with dignity. Published July 25, 2018
In defense of Trump with Putin
As a trial judge in New Jersey during the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush years, I spent much of my time trying to settle cases. This process involved bringing into my chambers the lawyers for the disputants and asking them in the absence of their adversaries to lay their cards on the table. Published July 18, 2018
Trump rewards swamp denizens by nominating one of their own to the Supreme Court
When Donald Trump started running for the Republican nomination for president in June 2015, he began by attacking the Republican establishment in Washington, and he began his attack by calling the establishment "the swamp." Published July 11, 2018
The values underlying Independence Day
The Declaration of Independence — which was signed on July 3, 1776, for public release on July 4 — was Thomas Jefferson's masterpiece. Jefferson himself wrote much about the declaration in the 50 years that followed. Published July 4, 2018
Can immigrants be deported without a trial?
Last weekend, President Trump argued that those foreigners who enter the United States unlawfully should simply be taken to the border, escorted across it and let go. According to the president, this would save precious government resources, avoid the business of separating children from their parents and free up the Border Patrol and other federal assets to do their jobs. Published June 27, 2018
How to keep the Federal Bureau of Investigation independent
When President Donald Trump appointed Atlanta lawyer Christopher Wray to succeed James Comey as the director of the FBI, my initial reaction was not positive. Mr. Wray is a veteran of the Department of Justice and is part of that good-old-boy DOJ network that knows how to protect its own. Indeed, when New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a former U.S. attorney, needed a good criminal defense lawyer — whose millions in fees were paid by New Jersey taxpayers — he hired Mr. Wray. Published June 20, 2018
The House Intelligence Committee interferes with the investigation of the president
Amid all the happy hoopla over President Donald Trump's trip to Singapore, where he began the process for what he hopes will be the normalization of relations between the United States and North Korea and the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, has come an effort by the House Intelligence Committee to interfere with the criminal investigation of the president. Published June 13, 2018
Rudy Giuliani’s hypothetical question deepens Donald Trump’s legal woes
Last weekend, the White House leaked a copy of a letter sent by President Donald Trump's legal team on Jan. 29 to special counsel Robert Mueller. The letter set forth the president's legal strategy, arguing essentially that he is immune from prosecution for any crime. Published June 6, 2018
Rudy Giuliani’s unwarranted attack on the Trump investigation
This past weekend, President Trump and the most visible member of his legal team, former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, fired up their campaign against special counsel Robert Mueller. They attacked people at the Department of Justice (DOJ) whom Mr. Trump appointed. They smeared career DOJ lawyers and FBI agents by offering allegations without showing any supporting evidence. And they purported to challenge the legitimacy of Mr. Mueller's office itself. Published May 30, 2018
If Mueller actually has something on Trump, intervention could look like obstruction
This past weekend, President Trump suggested that his presidential campaign may have been the victim of spies or moles who were FBI informants or undercover agents. He demanded an investigation to get to the bottom of the matter. Published May 23, 2018
Supreme Court strikes down the 1992 federal law that banned commercial sports betting
In 1992, Congress passed a statute authored by Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey, who was a former Princeton University and New York Knicks basketball superstar, prohibiting the states from authorizing sports betting. At that time, gambling in Atlantic City was flourishing, and notwithstanding one of its own senators' efforts to keep gambling away from competitive sports, the state of New Jersey wanted to duplicate Las Vegas' success with sports betting. Published May 16, 2018
Prosecutors and the rule of law
Late last week, a federal judge in Alexandria, Va., questioned the authority of special counsel Robert Mueller to seek an indictment and pursue the prosecution of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort for alleged financial crimes that, according to the indictment, began and ended well before Donald Trump ran for president. Published May 9, 2018
Troublesome questions for President Trump
In a startling revelation earlier this week, The New York Times published what it claims are 40 questions that special counsel Robert Mueller sent to lawyers for President Donald Trump. The questions are apparently a road map of inquiry that Mr. Mueller and his prosecutors and FBI agents plan to put to the president if the president agrees to sit down for an interview with them. Published May 2, 2018
At war and with the separation of powers
A popular way to begin the first day of class in constitutional law in many American law schools is to ask the students what sets the U.S. Constitution apart from all others. Published April 25, 2018
Trump and the attorney-client privilege
A few weeks ago, President Trump was an outwardly happy man because of the utterance of one solitary word from the lips of special counsel Robert Mueller to one of Mr. Trump's lawyers. The word that thrilled the president and his legal team was "subject." Published April 18, 2018
