Fox News personality Tucker Carlson was criticized after he spoke out in defense of former President Donald Trump amid a possible indictment over hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels back in 2016.
According to Carlson, this was a typical practice in America, and the settlement was a common agreement in the corporate world and among celebrities.
He said:
“Settlements like this, whatever you think of them, are common, both among famous people, celebrities and in corporate America."
"In this case, you can believe whatever side you want to believe, but paying people not to talk about things―hush money―is ordinary in modern America."
You can hear what Carlson said in the video below.
Carlson believes that the non-disclosure agreement is not a big deal and there was no wrongdoing in the case. He believes that Trump's critics and the media are trying to spin it as a crime.
However, this is not the first time that Fox News has had to pay settlements to make allegations of misconduct go away. Bill O'Reilly, a former host, paid out settlements worth around $13 million to five women who accused him of sexual harassment before Carlson took over the prime-time slot in 2017.
Carlson was swiftly rebuked for his remarks.
Over the weekend, Trump signaled on his troubled social media platform Truth Social that he expects to be arrested on Tuesday, March 21 as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's investigation into the $130,000 payment to Daniels just before the 2016 presidential election.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and fixer who made the payment, was imprisoned for campaign finance violations related to the incident. Although Trump has admitted to reimbursing Cohen, his legal team has argued that the payments did not qualify as campaign expenditures that needed to be reported because Trump would have paid them regardless of the campaign.
Nonetheless, there are still legal issues concerning potential falsification of business records when Trump reimbursed Cohen for the payments.
There is no indication as of yet that the grand jury hearing the case—which met yesterday and will meet again tomorrow—voted to indict Trump, which Forbesnoted "would have made a Tuesday arrest more possible."
