Retired New Jersey Superior Court Judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax that he is appalled that American courts are apparently "in the business of silencing people."
During a Friday appearance on "Wake Up America," Napolitano pointed to an incident related to special counsel Jack Smith's election interference case against former President Donald Trump as an example of governmental overreach.
"Two years ago, the feds got an order from a judge requiring X, formerly known as Twitter, to give the feds contents of all the communications that President Trump made using X while he was president in the White House," Napolitano said. "The second part of that order said thou shalt not reveal this to anyone. [X owner] Elon Musk said, Well, wait a minute. I have the freedom of speech. I can reveal it to my friend Donald Trump. I can reveal it to the press.
"So, Musk complied with the order to turn over Trump's tweets, but also filed an application before the judge, saying, let us reveal it. She said no.
"Appealed it to an appellate court, three-judge panel, they said no. Appealed it to the Supreme Court, on Monday the Supreme Court said no. So, my piece is – like I am now – angry that the courts in the United States of America are in the business of silencing people. It doesn't matter whether you like Musk or not, or whether you like Trump or not."
Napolitano went into further detail about government-compelled silence and how it relates to the Stored Communications Act of 1986 in a Wednesday opinion piece in The Washington Times.
The judge said the fact that "the feds took the contents of Trump's tweet account … could be and should have been able to be revealed to the public."
He also commented on Judge Tanya Chutkan's decision to unseal the entire brief Smith filed justifying his superseding indictment of Trump following the Supreme Court's ruling establishing presidential immunity.
Chutkan had previously unsealed parts of the brief, but her decision on Thursday unseals the document in its entirety and exposes all of the government's evidence against the former president.
"I like to think that my former colleagues don't have their eye on the ball of the election, but I know they're all too human," Napolitano said.
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Nicole Wells ✉
Nicole Wells, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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