Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano criticized U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III on Wednesday for his handling of special counsel Robert Mueller’s case against former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.
“I’m not happy with this judge,” Napolitano told Fox News’ Dana Perino. “He’s making too much of the case about him and he’s showing an extraordinary bias against the government. If you feel that negatively about the government, you shouldn’t be on the case, or you have to keep those feelings to yourself not manifest them.”
“You and I were talking during the break, the jury can’t be happy with this judge because of the snide, snarky comments,” he added to Perino.
Ellis, known for his courtroom humor and occasional scolding of lawyers, has set strict boundaries on Manafort’s trial. He banned the word “oligarch” from the courtroom for being “pejorative” and complained last week about prosecutors’ attempts to put Manafort on trial “for having a lavish lifestyle.”
“If it doesn’t say Men’s Warehouse, then I don’t know it,” Ellis said after learning the pronunciation of the “House of Bijan,” where Manafort bought some particularly high-end goods.
“I understand how frustrated you are,” he told a prosecutor Monday. “In fact, there’s tears in your eyes right now.”
Watch below:
Napolitano: Judge in Manafort case is showing "extraordinary bias against the government." pic.twitter.com/7sIjBKyPmC
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) August 8, 2018
Napolitano is just spouting the talking points that Faux has given him to say.
There’s no way, with what has been publicized, that Nappy’s accusation holds water. If anything, maybe Ellis is making it about himself (as many here have also stated), but extraordinary bias against the government says to me that Nappy’s watching another trial.
And what is Nappy’s experience in the courtroom with these types of cases? I don’t think he’s even on the bench anymore, is he? There must be a reason, if he loves the law, no?
I don’t see it so much as bias against the government but rather just a cranky old man who’s pissed Manafort, Trump, et al., are crapping all over his Republican party. Either way at least the defense won’t be able to claim the court was biased against them.
Napolitano has been one of two lonely voices of sanity at Fox trying, as best he can, to prepare the idiot goobers for the inevitable. Not what he was hired to do, but he just can’t seem to stay in character since Trump won and keeps breaking the fourth wall.
Ellis “banned the word “oligarch” from the courtroom…”
Oh. I thought it was “ostrich.”
Fuck you and the Hannity you rode in on.