Former judge Andrew Napolitano told Newsmax on Friday that the judge overseeing the lawsuit against the Trump administration over officials' use of the Signal app to coordinate a military operation in Yemen was selected by an "incorruptible" process.
President Donald Trump on Thursday posted a statement criticizing the judge who was appointed to oversee the lawsuit filed by a nonprofit group over the recent scandal involving several top administration officials using the app Signal when discussing plans for an attack on Houthi rebels in Yemen earlier this month.
Napolitano, in an interview with "Wake Up America," said that although the selection of U.S. District Judge James Boasberg may appear "weird and is frustrating" to Trump and his supporters, since he is also overseeing the lawsuit against the Trump administration over deportations, there is nothing corrupt about the process that led to his selection.
"I can only tell you that it is a truly automated and incorruptible decision by a computer system with algorithms in there that decide which judge gets which cases," Napolitano said, noting that during his time as a judge, this system "wasn't automated" like it is today.
"Now, it's done by a computer," Napolitano said. "Judge Boasberg couldn't affect this if he wanted to. He doesn't control the computer."
He also pointed out that "where Judge Boasberg sits, there's about 19 or 20 federal district court judges. He is the boss by virtue of seniority … he's the chief judge, but that's really an administrative position. He can't tell other judges how to rule, and he can't tell other judges what cases they have, and he can't control what cases he gets."
Napolitano said that the case involving the Signal scandal "raises issues under the Federal Records Act, the same act … under which issues were raised for [former Secretary of State] Hillary Clinton: Are you doing official government business outside of official government channels?"
He added that the use of Signal, an app that allows for the automatic deletion of messages after a set amount of time, could violate the Federal Records Act, which "requires that all communications be kept permanently and stored."
Napolitano said that the group behind the suit, the transparency nonprofit American Oversight, "is not looking for damages and not looking to punish the government. It's just looking to preserve records."
He added, "This is a group in Washington, D.C., that does nothing but watch the government to make sure both parties … preserve records."
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Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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