Tucker Carlson has jumped to Donald Trump’s defense over the possibility of indictment of the former president over payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in 2016.
Apparently, in the world of Fox News stars, this is normal.
“These kinds of settlements, whatever you think of them, are common, among famous people, celebrities and in corporate America,” he said Tuesday on “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” arguing that the non-disclosure agreement was not a problem.
“In this case, you can believe whatever you want to believe, but paying people not to talk about it – quiet money – is common in modern America.”
According to Carlson, there was no mistake – and the whole case was in the media and Trump’s critics believed that “everything he did was a crime.”
It’s no surprise that Carlson thinks the behavior is common. Fox News has a long history of paying settlements to make allegations of wrongdoing against the network. Carlson’s prime-time slot, for example, became available in 2017 after former host Bill O’Reilly reached a total settlement of around $13 million with five women accused of sexual harassment.
In a post on his social media site over the weekend, Trump signaled that he expected to be arrested on Tuesday as part of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s investigation into a $130,000 payment to Daniels in the final days before the 2016 presidential election. relationship with Trump ten years ago.
Michael Cohen, Trump’s former attorney and paid fixer, was jailed for campaign finance violations over the incident. Trump has admitted to repaying Cohen.
Trump’s legal team argued that the payments did not qualify as reportable campaign expenses because Trump would have paid the campaign no matter what. Although those arguments stand, there are other legal issues related to possible falsification of business records when Trump reimburses Cohen for the payments.
Carlson’s defense raised some eyebrows on social media: