Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro found guilty of contempt of Congress – live

Much will be riding on Donald Trump’s ability to remove the case to federal court.

The racketeering charge filed against Trump carries a sentence of five to 20 years in prison. If Trump were convicted in Georgia, he could not pardoned by a sympathetic president because the charges were filed at the state level. In Georgia, the governor does not even have the power to issue pardons, as that duty lies with the state’s board of pardons and paroles.

According to Ronald Carlson, a professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, Trump could not even apply for a pardon until he has been convicted and served five years in a Georgia prison. He said:

The stakes for the Trump team are really high in Georgia, so I expect a full-fledged defense by President Trump. Probably a lot of that will verge on political bias.

Trump has already offered a preview of that politically driven strategy. In a statement issued last month, Trump’s presidential campaign attacked Fulton county district attorney Fani Willis as a “radical Democrat” and “rabid partisan”. Despite those personal attacks, Willis appeared undaunted as she spoke to reporters shortly after the indictment was unsealed.

Eric Segall, a professor at Georgia State University College of Law, believes Trump may succeed at removing the case to federal court, but he expressed hope that a group of Georgians will eventually have the opportunity to issue a verdict on the former president’s election subversion efforts. He said:

I’m talking as a citizen more than as a law professor, but I think Donald Trump is an existential threat to our country. And I think a Georgia jury should decide if he broke the law in Georgia.

Florida governor Ron DeSantis vowed to fight recent efforts to respond to a rise in coronavirus cases across the US, while his state surgeon general, Joseph Ladapo, warned against the latest Covid-19 vaccine.

At a Jacksonville news conference on Thursday, DeSantis and Ladapo promised Florida would not join states, cities or school districts across the country in temporarily closing schools or mandating mask-wearing because of the recent uptick in Covid-19 cases, according to an AP report.

“People are lurching toward this insanity again,” DeSantis said.

As we see these things being orchestrated … there needs to be pushback.

His remarks came on the same day his GOP presidential campaign sent out an email to supporters pledging to “fight back against every bogus attempt the Left makes to expand government control” in relation to Covid-19 measures.

Lapado, whose previous warnings against Covid-19 vaccines have been criticized by federal health agencies who said his claims were harmful to the public, said there were no arguments for getting the latest vaccine. He added:

There are a lot of red flags.

South Dakota governor Kristi Noem is expected to endorse Donald Trump at a campaign rally in the state on Friday, sources told CNN, amid speculation the Republican governor could be potential running mate for the former president if he wins the GOP nomination.

Trump is expected to join Noem in the South Dakota Republican party’s “Monumental Leaders Rally” in Rapid City on Friday, where she is slated to appear as the event’s special guest.

Noem, who won re-election during the midterms with Trump’s endorsement, was once a potential 2024 candidate herself and in a November 2022 interview with the New York Times that she didn’t believe Trump offered “the best chance” for the Republican party in 2024.

In August, she doubled down on her decision not to run for the GOP primary race, telling Fox News that “none of them can win as long as Trump’s in the race […] So why run if you can’t win?”

The report writes:

While she is expected Friday to formally throw her support behind Trump – a move most other Republican governors have been reluctant to make so far – Noem has demurred on questions about her interest in the nation’s second-highest office.

‘Of course, I would consider it,’ Noem told Fox News host Sean Hannity recently when asked if she would be Trump’s vice president.

An impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden would be sure to enflame America’s bitter political divisions ahead of next year’s presidential election, a likely Biden-Trump rematch. Trump faces criminal and civil trials of his own.

It would also collide with efforts to prevent a shutdown of the federal government. The House is scheduled to meet for just 11 days before the fiscal year ends on 30 September. Members are under pressure to come up with short-term funding to keep government offices functioning and provide emergency funding for Ukraine and disaster relief.

House speaker Kevin McCarthy faces resistance from fellow Republicans, including far-right members who have threatened to shut the government unless they get the impeachment they crave. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted a video, declaring she “will not vote to fund the government” unless the House holds a vote to open an impeachment inquiry.

Some have threatened to oust McCarthy if he stands in the way. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, admitted last week:

Honestly, it’s a pretty big mess.

Vice-President Kamala Harris has dismissed questions about Joe Biden’s age, telling a television interviewer she is prepared to be commander in chief, but that it won’t be necessary, Reuters writes.

Joe Biden is going to be just fine,” Harris said, when asked about concerns that Biden is too old to run again.

Biden, who will turn 81 in November and would be 82 at the start of a prospective second four-year term in January 2025, faces skeptical American voters who will decide whether to elect the Democrat for another four years in November 2024.

His leading opponent, Republican Donald Trump, is 77. American voters tell pollsters they’d like to see younger candidates for president.

Some Republican presidential candidates, including former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, have said a vote for Biden would end up being a vote for Harris, who had a 40% approval rating in an average of polls compiled by politics website Five Thirty Eight.

Harris, on a trip to an Asian leaders summit meeting in Jakarta, told CBS News, when asked if she was prepared to take over the presidency, “Yes, I am, if necessary. But Joe Biden is going to be fine. Let me tell you something: I work with Joe Biden every day.”

Harris also rejected criticism by Republicans who said electing her would be risky.“They feel the need to attack because they’re scared that we will win based on the merit of the work that Joe Biden and I, and our administration has done,” she said.

The verdict on Peter Navarro in court in Washington DC this afternoon was unanimous.

Reuters has more on this:

The 12-member jury found Navarro guilty of two counts of contempt after he refused to testify or turn over documents to the Democratic-led House panel that investigated the Januaruy 6, 2021 riot by Trump supporters and broader attempts by Trump, a Republican, to reverse his 2020 election defeat.

Navarro, wearing a dark suit and red tie, showed no visible reaction when the verdict was read aloud.

“The defendant chose allegiance to former President Trump over compliance with the subpoena,” federal prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi told the jurors during closing arguments earlier on Thursday. “That is contempt. That is a crime.”

The charges carry a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for January 12, 2024.

Navarro is a hawk on China policy who advised Trump on trade issues during his presidency and also served on the Covid-19 task force.

The verdict in Navarro’s case in federal court in Washington came after a trial that featured just one day of testimony from three prosecution witnesses, former staff members of the select committee. The defense did not call any witnesses or present any evidence.

Peter Navarro, a senior trade adviser during Donald Trump’s presidency, is the second Trump aide to be convicted on contempt of Congress charges after former White House adviser Steve Bannon.

Navarro has been charged with two counts of contempt of Congress, both punishable by up to a year behind bars. Bannon is appealing his own conviction.

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro has been found guilty of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after he ignored a subpoena issued last year by the House January 6 committee during the investigation into the Capitol attack.

Former Donald Trump White House aide Peter Navarro, who is facing contempt of Congress charges for not complying with a subpoena from the January 6 committee, has returned to the Washington DC courtroom to hear the verdict for his trial.

A federal jury began deliberating the criminal contempt of Congress charges against Navarro earlier this afternoon. Navarro faces two counts stemming from his failure to comply with the committee’s demands to produce documents and testimony. Each charge carries a maximum of one year in prison.

The former Trump adviser has long insisted he could not comply with the subpoena because Trump had asserted executive privilege and he was obliged to protect his confidential discussions with Trump when he was the president.

The White House warned House speaker Kevin McCarthy to “honor” commitments he made to the American people and to approve its request to tie aid for Ukraine with increased disaster relief funding.

McCarthy has been considering tying approval for aid to Ukraine to controversial immigration and asylum policies strongly opposed by Democrats.

A statement from White House spokesperson Andrew Bates reads:

Lives are at stake across a wide range of urgent, bipartisan priorities for the American people that are addressed in President Biden’s supplemental funding request – a request that honors the funding commitments he and both parties in both chambers made to the American people.

Like Senate Republicans, Speaker McCarthy should keep his word about government funding. And he should do so in a way that acts on these pressing issues – including fentanyl, national security, and disaster response – rather than break his promise and cave to the most extreme members of his conference agitating for a baseless impeachment stunt and shutdown.

The White House said Joe Biden tested negative for Covid-19 again, ahead of his scheduled departure for India and Vietnam.

The first lady, Jill Biden, tested positive for Covid-19 on Monday.

Biden is expected to depart for New Delhi on Thursday evening to attend a G20 summit and a stop in Vietnam designed to further cement US influence in Asia.

Hunter Biden’s case has become a political lightning rod. Republicans accused the justice department of concocting a “sweetheart deal” and raised the prospect of impeaching the president over unsubstantiated claims that he played a role in his son’s foreign business affairs during his time as vice-president.

Hunter has been the target of congressional investigations since Republicans gained control of the House in January. Three committees are pursuing lines of inquiry. They have obtained thousands of pages of financial records from members of the Biden family through subpoenas to the treasury department and financial institutions.

But Republicans have failed to produce evidence that Biden directly participated in his son’s work, though he sometimes had dinner with clients or greeted them on calls.

Although Senate Republicans have voiced scepticism, the momentum behind an impeachment inquiry in the House may prove unstoppable. The speaker, Kevin McCarthy, told Fox News recently:

If you look at all the information we have been able to gather so far, it is a natural step forward that you would have to go to an impeachment inquiry.

Donald Trump – the clear frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2024 despite facing 91 criminal charges in four jurisdictions and civil lawsuits too – is urging Republicans to move quickly. He told Real America’s Voice:

I don’t know actually how a Republican could not do it. I think a Republican would be primaried and lose immediately, no matter what district you’re in.

The White House is bracing for political trench warfare after prosecutors pursuing Joe Biden’s son on a gun possession charge said they would seek a criminal indictment by the end of September.

The prospect of Hunter Biden standing trial is likely to energise Republicans preparing to launch an impeachment inquiry into the president even as Congress tries to avert a government shutdown.

The White House has reportedly set up a “war room” of two dozen lawyers and aides to combat the Republican effort, partly by studying how Bill Clinton turned his 1998 impeachment to his political advantage.

Long a political liability for his father, Hunter Biden bought a pistol in 2018 and allegedly lied on a federal form by stating he was not a drug user at the time. In a Wednesday court filing, the special counsel David Weiss said the government would seek a grand jury indictment before 29 September.

The development followed the collapse of a plea deal under which Hunter Biden would have entered into a deferred prosecution agreement over the gun charge and pleaded guilty to tax charges too. The younger Biden’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, insists the deal is still in effect.

We believe the signed and filed diversion agreement remains valid and prevents any additional charges from being filed against Mr Biden, who has been abiding by the conditions of release under that agreement for the last several weeks.

Donald Trump has filed notice in Fulton County that he “may” seek to have his 2020 election subversion case removed to federal court.

I’m told by people familiar that Trump’s legal team is waiting to see what happens with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and his arguments before taking that step.

The unusual notice appears to have been aimed mainly for presiding Fulton County superior court judge Scott McAfee.

Trump has 30 days from the day of his arraignment – or when he filed his not guilty plea and arraignment waiver on 31 August – to file for removal to federal court. Removal could upend things and McAfee noted the potential logistical headache at a hearing yesterday.

If Meadows wins his removal motion, then the case goes to US district court. If Meadows loses but the US court of appeals for the 11th Circuit reverses, then McAfee could face problem of having started a trial with no jurisdiction.