When your defense is overruled in court, most people would consider that a loss. Some Trump supporters on Fox News, however, wanted viewers to believe it was actually a good thing.
Sadly, that spin was too much even for some Fox correspondents to stomach.
After the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that President Trump would have to hand his tax returns over to attorneys investigating his finances, Fox anchor Jon Scott said:
"It sounds like in a strange way that might lead to victory for the President because if it goes back to the lower courts it would seem that any further action would be postponed until after the election."
Fox News pundit Katie Pavlich: Tax returns ruling against Trump is 'a win for him'www.youtube.com
Fox's Senior Judicial Analyst, Judge Andrew Napolitano, put that idea right to bed, however.
He told Scott:
"It means that the President of the United States—President Trump and all of his successors and any of his predecessors for that matter—is not immune from criminal prosecution and is not immune from complying with the ordinary process."
"This is a defeat for the President."
Though the judge conceded "ultimately this might not affect the election" since the public might not get the chance to view Trump's tax returns within the coming months, Napolitano did note:
"It certainly will affect the President's peace of mind."
With this Supreme Court ruling, investigators will be able to continue digging into Trump's finances long after he leaves the Presidency.
Chris Stirewalt agreed, saying:
"The truth here is this is a big defeat for Trump..."
"What the Supreme Court said in sending this back is unambiguous, which is that Trump is going to see these things released to prosecutors and it's not going to take that long because they're ready to go."
Twitter seemed fairly convinced that the President had lost this battle.
But who knows. Perhaps time will show us that President Trump's team losing in court once again is actually a brilliant long-term strategy by the White House.
Most legal experts doubt it.
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