Jeff Danziger lives in New York City. He is represented by CWS Syndicate and the Washington Post Writers Group. He is the recipient of the Herblock Prize and the Thomas Nast (Landau) Prize. He served in the US Army in Vietnam and was awarded the Bronze Star and the Air Medal. He has published eleven books of cartoons and one novel. Visit him at DanzigerCartoons.com.
Advertising
Start your day with National Memo Newsletter
Know first.
The opinions that matter. Delivered to your inbox every morning
Peter Navarro
Youtube Screenshot
The Justice Department on Wednesday sued former Trump White House advisor Peter Navarro, demanding he return email communications he allegedly sent or received without copying his government account. The DOJ says these emails are presidential records and belong to the federal government. Legal experts are warning the government has an excellent case and others in similar circumstances should be “concerned.”
“Navarro, who worked for the White House during the entirety of Trump’s presidency, had used ‘at least one non-official email account … to send and receive messages constituting Presidential records,’ the Justice Department said in a court filing,” Politico reports. “Attorneys also accused him of ‘wrongfully retaining them’ in violation of federal record-keeping laws, as Navarro did not copy the messages into an official government account, nor did he respond to the National Archivist’s initial request for the emails.”
Top national security attorney Bradley Moss explained the case by saying, “Navarro walked out of the White House with hundreds of records in his possession and refuses to return them.”
The DOJ’s complaint against Navarro, a promoter of Trump’s “Big Lie,” suggests he tried to obtain immunity in exchange for returning the records but apparently DOJ refused.
“Prior to filing this suit, in an effort to avoid litigation, Department of Justice counsel contacted Mr. Navarro by email and United States mail to secure the Presidential records that Mr. Navarro had not copied to his government email account. Discussions with Mr. Navarro’s counsel to secure the return of Presidential records ultimately proved unsuccessful. Mr. Navarro has refused to return any Presidential records that he retained absent a grant of immunity for the act of returning such documents.”
Joyce Vance, a former U.S. Attorney writes, “DOJ, which has been busy this week, sued Peter Navarro for the return of comms on his private devices b/c they’re presidential records.”
“The analysis is persuasive,” says Vance, who is now a professor of law and MSNBC/NBC News legal analyst. “Other presidential advisors who used private comms should be concerned.”
The Associated Press notes that the “legal action comes just weeks after Navarro was indicted on criminal charges after refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.”
Back in June while prosecuting Navarro’s criminal case, the DOJ said that the former Trump aide, arrested and charged with criminal contempt of Congress, is making “misrepresentations” and “false” claims, including that he was denied food and water and denied his right to call an attorney.
After he was arraigned and allowed to leave the courtroom in early June, Navarro had repeatedly made seemingly wild claims, including that he should not have been arrested at the airport, that he was put in “leg irons,” that he was “strip-searched,” that law enforcement officials refused to allow him to call an attorney – despite also repeatedly stating he would be representing himself, including before a judge.
He also complained he had been placed in solitary confinement, in a tweet promoting his book with a link to purchase it on Amazon.
Reprinted with permission from Alternet.
Related Articles Around the Web
- Trump aide Peter Navarro indicted for contempt of Jan. 6 Capitol probe ›
- Justice Department sues Peter Navarro over private email server ... ›
- DOJ SUES Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro for refusing to turn ... ›
- Justice Department sues Peter Navarro for Trump White House emails ›
- U.S. Justice Department sues Trump adviser Navarro over White ... ›
- U.S. sues former Trump aide Peter Navarro over White House emails ›
Keep reading...
Show less
Kelly Jones
The House Select Committee, a bipartisan House panel investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, is preparing to subpoena a trove of Infowars founder Alex Jones’s texts and emails accidentally sent to an attorney in the Sandy Hook court case, Rolling Stone reported Wednesday.
The report comes after a bombshell revelation on Wednesday that Jones’s lawyers had accidentally turned three years' worth of his private communications to the opposing counsel in an ongoing defamation trial.
Within minutes of the shocking twist, the January 6 select committee began internal deliberations in preparation to subpoena the phone data from the plaintiffs’ attorney, according to Rolling Stone, which cited a source familiar with the matter.
Attorney Mark Bankston, an attorney representing the parents of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary massacre, disclosed the gaffe while cross-examining Jones.
"Did you know [that] 12 days ago your attorneys messed up and sent me an entire digital copy of your entire cell phone, with every text message you've sent for the past two years?" Bankston said to Jones on Wednesday. "And when informed, [your team] did not take any steps to identify it as privileged, or protected in any way?"
Jones had testified under oath the day before that his team had complied with the discovery process. He also said he hadn’t mentioned Sandy Hook in his text messages.
“Do you know what perjury is?” Bankston asked a shocked Jones, suggesting the conspiracy theorist had lied on the stand.
“We fully intend on cooperating with law enforcement and US government officials interested in seeing these materials,” Bankston later told the court.
Jones, a far -right media personality, took to Infowars — his media outlet and megaphone for outlandish and disturbing conspiracies — in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre to claim that tragedy, which claimed the lives of 20 children and six adults, was staged and that the victims’ bereaved families were“crisis actors.”
The Sandy Hook victims’ families sued Jones for $150 million in compensatory damages, and he was found liable for defamation in Connecticut and Texas last fall.
In April, three of Jones’s companies — Infowars, Prison Planet TV, and IW Health — filed for bankruptcy, a maneuver he hoped would obstruct court proceedings. Sandy Hook victims’ families warned a Houston bankruptcy judge that Jones could continue siphoning assets from Infowars parent company, Free Speech Systems LLC while stalling due process.
So far, Jones has lost four separate Sandy Hook defamation cases by default because he failed to comply with courts in Texas and Connecticut and didn’t produce documents demanded of him.
However, another run-in with the January 6 select committee is not necessarily the worst of Jone’s mounting legal troubles. His woes were compounded further on Wednesday when Jones’s ex-wife, Kelly Jones, said she planned to subpoena his records for her ongoing child custody court battle with Jones.
"I know the texts and information on his phone will be evidence of all the nefarious, truly conspiratorial things said between him and his employees in their plans to keep my kids from me," Kelly Jones told Insider on Wednesday. "It's not even about my kids; it's about control. Controlling me."
Incensed by recent developments, Jones launched into an unhinged tirade outside the courthouse. He assailed the judge, blamed “judicial fraud” for the mountain of legal trouble he faced, and accused the Democratic Party of “weaponizing the judiciary” against him.
“[The judge] found me guilty,” Jones fumed. “She lied and said we didn’t give them the discovery, so she can have a show trial and tell the jury: ‘He’s guilty.’”
“The Democratic Party has fully weaponized the judiciary to persecute people, just like Rick Perry, who they indicted for vetoing a bill,” Jones falsely claimed.
It is unclear how recent developments will affect Jones’s trial or whether he could face new lawsuits.
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
- Alex Jones' attorney mistakenly sent two years of his text messages ... ›
- Alex Jones Caught Lying About Sandy Hook Communications ... ›
- Damaging Alex Jones texts mistakenly sent to Sandy Hook family's ... ›
- Alex Jones learns on witness stand that lawyer sent his text ... ›
- Alex Jones attorneys accidentally gave up his phone's contents ... ›
- Alex Jones' testimony contradicted by evidence from his own cell ... ›
Keep reading...
Show less
