U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Thursday sentenced Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to President Donald Trump, to four months in prison. Navarro was convicted for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 Select Committee.
In the waning days of the Trump Administration, when other White House officials had left in pursuit of new employment, Navarro authored a report, The Immaculate Deception, about the 2020 presidential election. [See Executive Summary below.]
In a Facebook post of Dec. 19, 2020, Trump praised the report, compiled with the assistance of Navarro's deputy Garrett Ziegler.
"Peter Navarro releases 36-page report alleging election fraud 'more than sufficient' to swing victory to Trump — A great report by Peter. Statistically impossible to have lost the 2020 Election."
The report warned:
If these election irregularities are not fully investigated prior to Inauguration Day and thereby effectively allowed to stand, this nation runs the very real risk of never being able to have a fair presidential election again.
Mehta, an Obama appointee, said Navarro’s refusal to testify or provide documents to the committee was an affront to a branch of government that was seeking to understand an attack on democracy.The judge fined Navarro $9,500.
The sentence is two months shorter than the six prosecutors had sought and Mehta also drastically reduced the $200,000 fine sought by the Biden Department of Justice.
Navarro said at Thursday's sentencing hearing that he defied the subpoena because he believed in "good faith" that Trump had invoked executive privilege.
"When I received that congressional subpoena, the second, I had an honest belief that the privilege had been invoked, and I was torn. Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch. Is that the lesson of this entire proceeding? Get a letter and a lawyer? I think in a way it is," Navarro said. "I am disappointed with a process where a jury convicted me, and I was unable to provide a defense, one of the most important elements of our justice system."
“In all of this, even today, there is little acknowledgement of what your obligation is as an American to cooperate with Congress, to provide them with information they are seeking,” Mehta said. “They had a job to do. And you made it harder. It’s really that simple.”
“You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution,” Mehta added. “These are circumstances of your own making.”
Attorney Lin Wood posted on Telegram about lawfare against Trump and his attorneys and supporters:
Have you noticed that ALL the criminal charges against President Trump (which started after the 8/8/022 illegal raid on Mar-a-Lago) have been factually and legally baseless???Georgia Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said:
ALL brought by prosecutors who are clearly anti-Trumpers and corrupt. ALL brought in front of judges who are clearly anti-Trumpers and corrupt.
They are being exposed. Their tactics are being exposed. Their communism is being exposed. Seems like a pattern to me.
Ray Epps is on video encouraging people to “go into the Capitol,” and received zero jail time. But Peter Navarro gets 4 months in federal prison for refusing to comply with a sham committee formed by Nancy Pelosi. She broke House rules and refused to allow actual Republicans to be on the fake committee.Navarro has vowed to appeal the verdict.
The Department of Injustice is controlled by communist radicals hell-bent on imprisoning their political enemies. Everyone needs to wake up and recognize the threat our country faces with these tyrannical tactics.
Navarro was the second Trump aide to face contempt of Congress charges. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon was convicted of two counts and was sentenced to four months behind bars, though he has been free while appealing his conviction.
Following is the 'Executive Summary' of Navarro's 2020 election security report:
This report assesses the fairness and integrity of the 2020 Presidential Election by examining six dimensions of alleged election irregularities across six key battleground states. Evidence used to conduct this assessment includes more than 50 lawsuits and judicial rulings, thousands of affidavits and declarations, testimony in a variety of state venues, published analyses by think tanks and legal centers, videos and photos, public comments, and extensive press coverage.
The matrix below indicates that significant irregularities occurred across all six battleground states and across all six dimensions of election irregularities. This finding lends credence to the claim that the election may well have been stolen from President Donald J. Trump.
From the findings of this report, it is possible to infer what may well have been a coordinated strategy to effectively stack the election deck against the Trump-Pence ticket. Indeed, the observed patterns of election irregularities are so consistent across the six battleground states that they suggest a coordinated strategy to, if not steal the election outright, strategically game the election process in such a way as to “stuff the ballot box” and unfairly tilt the playing field in favor of the Biden-Harris ticket. Topline findings of this report include:
- The weight of evidence and patterns of irregularities are such that it is irresponsible for anyone – especially the mainstream media – to claim there is “no evidence” of fraud or irregularities.
- The ballots in question because of the identified election irregularities are more than sufficient to swing the outcome in favor of President Trump should even a relatively small portion of these ballots be ruled illegal.
- All six battleground states exhibit most, or all, six dimensions of election irregularities. However, each state has a unique mix of issues that might be considered “most important.” To put this another way, all battleground states are characterized by the same or similar election irregularities; but, like Tolstoy’s unhappy families, each battleground state is different in its own election irregularity way.
- This was theft by a thousand cuts across six dimensions and six battleground states rather than any one single “silver bullet” election irregularity.
- In refusing to investigate a growing number of legitimate grievances, the anti-Trump media and censoring social media are complicit in shielding the American public from the truth. This is a dangerous game that simultaneously undermines the credibility of the media and the stability of our political system and Republic.
- Those journalists, pundits, and political leaders now participating in what has become a Biden Whitewash should acknowledge the six dimensions of election irregularities and conduct the appropriate investigations to determine the truth about the 2020 election. If this is not done before Inauguration Day, we risk putting into power an illegitimate and illegal president lacking the support of a large segment of the American people.
- The failure to aggressively and fully investigate the six dimensions of election irregularities assessed in this report is a signal failure not just of our anti-Trump mainstream media and censoring social media but also of both our legislative and judicial branches. __ Republican governors in Arizona and Georgia together with Republican majorities in both chambers of the State Legislatures of five of the six battleground states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin – have had both the power and the opportunity to investigate the six dimensions of election irregularities presented in this report. Yet, wilting under intense political pressure, these politicians have failed in their Constitutional duties and responsibilities to do so – and thereby failed both their states and this nation as well as their party. __ Both State courts and Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have failed the American people in refusing to appropriately adjudicate the election irregularities that have come before them. Their failures pose a great risk to the American Republic.
- If these election irregularities are not fully investigated prior to Inauguration Day and thereby effectively allowed to stand, this nation runs the very real risk of never being able to have a fair presidential election again – with the down-ballot Senate races scheduled for January 5 in Georgia an initial test case of this looming risk.
Publishers and Citizen Journalists: Start your Engines
