EXCERPT:
RANGAPPA: "So, Jim, with regard to the President, the president has 99 problems, as they say, and I would think that Smollett isn’t one of them. But there could be a federal hook here. There was some reporting by CNN that early on the D.A. had requested the FBI to come in and take over the case. And this can’t happen in a hate crime. At the jurisdiction’s request, the FBI and DoJ can come in. Now, if they were doing that and looking at the case from the get go and then it turns out to be a hoax, the FBI and DoJ have every basis to potentially look at charges like mail fraud or wire fraud and to continue in that vein. So the problem with the President commenting on it is that if that is actually what is happening, he is now helping the defense. Because if I were a defense lawyer, I would argue my client cannot get a fair trial. The President has tweeted out to 30 million people that he is basically guilty. So especially if the DoJ is looking at it, I think this should be something that the President should not comment on at all."