More than 12 hours after the Murdoch network’s photoshop smear of the judge who issued the Mar-a-Lago search warrant was exposed, host Brian Kilmeade insisted it was just a joke.

In case you missed it, Brian Kilmeade, subbing for Tucker Carlson last night, twice hyped as real a photoshopped image of the judge who signed the warrant for the FBI to search at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The image shows the judge's face on what is really pedophile Jeffrey Epstein's body. The judge is already facing serious death threats. But if there’s one thing Carlson loves, it’s endangering people he dislikes. Joke or not, the image likely pleased the vacationing hate monger and, probably, his like-minded viewers.

Kilmeade, no doubt aware of the pro-death proclivity of the Tucker Carlson Tonight show, did not sound one itsy-bitsy like he was joking. Here’s what Kilmeade said in the teaser:

KILMEADE: Meanwhile, the Judge who signed the warrant for the raid on Mar-a-Lago is a huge fan of Oreos, and an Obama donor. You can be both. We showed you that photo yesterday. But that isn't the only embarrassing photo from Judge Bruce Reinhart.

You won't believe who he’s pictured getting cozy with. We're going to show you that next.

Then there was this handoff to Sean Hannity (both videos are below):

KILMEADE: Also, a picture of Bruce Reinhart. This is the judge in charge of the -- as you know, of the warrant and we'll see if he is going to release it next. He likes Oreos and whiskey. Sean, can you relate to that?

HANNITY: I think that's actually a picture of Jeffrey Epstein with somebody putting his head on there. I am guessing. I don't know.

KILMEADE: It might be his plane, who knows?

HANNITY: I'll let you determine that in the morning. We'll be watching, Brian. Thank you.

Nearly 24 hours later, after what Mediaite called “a thunderous backlash” and amid reporting that Trump is suspected of absconding with nuclear secrets from the White House, Kilmeade announced that it was all just a joke!

Last night while subbing for Tucker Carlson, we showed you an image of Judge Bruce Reinhart w/ Ghislaine Maxwell that was sourced on screen to a meme pulled from Twitter & wasn’t real. This depiction never took place & we wanted to make clear that we were showing a meme in jest.

— Brian Kilmeade (@kilmeade) August 12, 2022

As Crooks and Liars’ John Amato has pointed out, the Murdochs’ New York Post also smeared the judge by falsely tying him to Epstein. (In reality, the judge had represented Epstein employees who had received immunity during the Epstein investigation.) Amato also noted that Alan Dershowitz, who actually negotiated Epstein’s tap-on-the-wrist Florida sentence, was and is a regular Fox fave.

And, as C&L’s Conover Kennard pointed out, there are real photos of Trump with Epstein. But don’t expect any of them to show up on Fox News any time soon.

You can judge for yourself whether Kilmeade was joking or not in the clips below, from the August 11, 2022 Tucker Carlson Tonight.