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Crime The Trump Adminstration

Former Trump Trade Adviser Peter Navarro Arrested And In Custody On Criminal Charges

Former White House Trade Adviser Peter Navarro, a top ally of failed, one-term former President Donald Trump, was indicted today and is in custody on criminal charges, according to NBC News.

Navarro, 72, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday for contempt after snubbing a subpoena from the House committee investigating Jan. 6 seeking testimony and documents.

Court documents indicate that the government requested that Navarro’s indictment be sealed until his “arrest operation is executed.” The U.S. Attorney’s Office told NBC News that Navarro “is in custody pending the court appearance” later Friday.

The contempt charges could send Navarro to prison for up to two years.

The House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection noted in their February 9 subpoena of Navarro that they believed he “had information relevant to its investigation. Navarro, formerly an adviser to the president on various trade and manufacturing policies, has been a private citizen since departing the White House on Jan. 20, 2021.”

Prosecutors said they requested Navarro’s indictment be sealed because they feared he was a flight risk:

“The events leading to the charges in the Indictment have been the subject of public scrutiny and concern.” Public disclosure of the indictment, they wrote, “would give the Defendant the opportunity to flee, tamper with witnesses or evidence, or take other steps to interfere with the criminal case.”

Navarro attempted to claim that he was unable to testify because Trump had declared that all former advisers were still covered by executive privilege, but courts have repeatedly ruled such privilege no longer applies once a president leaves office.

Navarro said executive privilege prevented him from talking to the committee, and that he would only do so if Trump gave him the green light to do so. The Jan. 6 committee has noted that Navarro has publicly boasted about his plans to upend the election results and that he published a book last year in which he referred to the plan as the “Green Bay Sweep.” Navarro also said publicly that Trump was “on board with the strategy.”

Navarro is the second former Trump administration official to be indicted for contempt of Congress. Steve Bannon was charged in November of last year for refusing to obey a lawful subpoena.

Categories
Capitol Insurrection Justice Department

Feds Have Bannon In Their Sights With 3 Prosecutors And 4 FBI Agents Assigned To His Case

While former Trump administration adviser Steve Bannon pretends he isn’t worried about being convicted for contempt of Congress and spending two years in prison, new information suggests the legal case against him has grown exponentially since he was indicted back in November of last year.

Just how serious is the matter being investigated by the Justice Department regarding Bannon? Enough so that a court filing shows 3 prosecutors and 4 FBI agents have been assigned to his case, according to Scott MacFarlane, Congressional correspondent for CBS News:

Another interesting twist to Bannon’s case is that the feds also obtained email and phone records for one of Bannon’s attorneys, which led his legal team to file an enraged motion in court on Friday:

“The undersigned counsel were shocked to learn, upon accessing these documents, that almost all of the documents reflected efforts by the government to obtain telephone records and email records from the personal and professional accounts of defense counsel, Robert J. Costello, Esquire. Nowhere in the Government’s production was a copy of a court order authorizing the Government’s actions, nor was there a copy of any subpoena for the records, nor was there even any application for a court order or for authorization from the Department of Justice for subpoenas intended to obtain defense counsel’s personal and professional telephone and email records.”

What Costello neglected to mention, however, is that the government is under no obligation to notify him or anyone else involved in the Bannon case if investigators suspect his attorneys to be part of a larger criminal complaint, i.e. a conspiracy.

Politico notes:

“Many of Costello’s email logs were provided to prosecutors on Dec. 7 under the auspices of a so-called 2703 order, which doesn’t always require notice to the customer.”

A 2703(d) order is a section of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 which “authorizes the government to compel a provider of electronic communication services to disclose certain subscriber records through a court order.”

If the feds have a court order (and there’s every reason to believe they would have sought one, especially for such a high-profile case), they can obtain any communication records they want, even if those devices belong to an attorney.

The DOJ is not playing games with Steve Bannon. That’s bad news for him and anyone who may have conspired with him to arrange the Capitol riots, most notably Donald Trump himself.

 

Categories
Capitol Insurrection The Trump Organization WTF?!

Greene Kisses Steve Bannon’s A*s After He’s Referred To DOJ For Contempt: ‘I Was Disgusted And Furious!’

On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted to refer former Trump adviser Steve Bannon to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena for documents and testimony sought by the Select Committee on the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol.

According to the Washington Post, if the DOJ does charge Bannon with contempt, he could be looking at spending at least a year in jail:

Bannon has previously argued through his attorney that he can’t respond to the subpoena because of executive privilege asserted by former president Donald Trump.

The matter now goes to the Justice Department, which will decide whether to pursue the contempt referral. Contempt of Congress is a misdemeanor criminal offense that can result in up to one year in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

Prior to the vote, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) asked his colleagues to consider if they were willing to allow some people to declare that they’re above the law:

Shortly after the vote, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who may also be facing a subpoena for the Jan. 6 committee in the near future, made an appearance on Bannon’s podcast, “War Room: Pandemic,” and wasted no time verbally kissing his ass:

“Here they are, celebrating voting to hold an innocent American in criminal contempt!”

An innocent American? If Bannon and the rest of the suspected plotters are so innocent, why don’t they willingly agree to cooperate with the committee? Only guilty people refuse to comply with a legal subpoena.

Greene then claimed that after the vote — which was approved by a 229-to-202 vote, with 9 Republicans crossing the aisle to vote “yes” — she approached Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Jamie Raskin (D-MD) and confronted them for taking action against Bannon:

“They lied about you, they lied about President Trump and I was disgusted and furious! So I yelled at them on the House floor! I let Liz Cheney have it, I let Adam Schiff have it, I let Raskin have it! I couldn’t contain myself — I said you people are a joke!”

Classic psychological projection by Greene, who is vying for being the biggest joke of a so-called “representative” when you consider that she managed to get herself booted off all committee assignments with her big mouth and anti-Semitic rhetoric.

Greene and her ilk are running scared, and they damn well should be. If the Jan. 6 committee finds evidence they were also a part of the plotting, they too could wind up being charged with crimes even more serious than contempt of Congress.