Judge Napolitano: Trump's conflicts of interest are perfectly legal

Judge Andrew Napolitano says President-elect Donald Trump's perceived conflicts of interests related to his global business dealings are a political liability and not a legal problem, as some of the Manhattan billionaire's critics have suggested.

Appearing on Fox News' "The Kelly File" with Megyn Kelly on Monday, Napolitano said the reason the problem is not a legal one is because "all the ethics rules the Congress has written and [Trump's] predecessors have signed in office, regulating everybody who works for the federal government have two exceptions to them: the vice president and the president."

"So none of the rules that govern everyone else govern him," Napolitano added.

But the judge also pointed out it's still possible for a President Trump to break the law in other ways.

"He can't accept payments from foreign governments in order to confer benefits on them," Napolitano said, but he noted that even the president-elect's "wildest critics have not accused him of that."

"If he tows the line, he can probably do what he says he's going to do: be a good businessman and be a great president at the same time," Napolitano said. He later added that, "candidly, when these laws were written, no one contemplated a Donald Trump."

"No one contemplated a billionaire with serious interests in 20 countries around the world, even countries that are not friendly to the United States. They wanted to give the president as much freedom as possible," the judge explained.

That said, Napolitano went on to say that, while it may be legal for Trump to do business and lead the free world simultaneously, it's still probably not a good idea.

"It would be a lot easier for him. He'd be a better president and a happier president if he put all of his holdings into a blind trust and had no contact with the trustee. Does he have to do that? No. And if he doesn't do that, the remedy is criticism, investigations and political ramifications, but no legal wrongdoing," Napolitano concluded.