Ex-Trump aide Peter Navarro released from federal prison
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Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist, was the mastermind of the "Green Bay Sweep," an attempt to prevent Congress from recognizing the 2020 election results.
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Peter Navarro, former director of the White House National Trade Council, speaks during CPAC at National Harbor in Oxon Hill on February 24, 2024. (AP)
Peter Navarro, Donald Trump's former White House trade advisor, was freed from a Florida jail on Wednesday after serving a four-month contempt of Congress term, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
Navarro is scheduled to fly from Miami, where he is jailed in a federal prison, to Milwaukee to address the Republican National Convention.
Navarro was found guilty of two counts of contempt in September for refusing to comply with a subpoena to appear before a congressional subcommittee investigating Donald Trump supporters' January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.
Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist, was the mastermind of the "Green Bay Sweep," an attempt to prevent Congress from recognizing the 2020 election results.
Navarro declined to attend a deposition before the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 attack on Congress and refused to provide materials to the panel.
A federal jury in Washington convicted him of contempt following a two-day trial, and he claimed to have been a victim of "partisan weaponization of our justice system."
Steve Bannon, one of the masterminds of Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, was also convicted of contempt of Congress. He was sentenced to 4 months in jail, and he began serving it on July 1 at a federal facility in Connecticut.
Judge rules to dismiss superseding indictment in Trump classified docs
In an order filed on Monday, US District Judge Aileen Cannon dismissed the superseding indictment in the classified documents case involving former President Donald Trump.
"Former President Trump's Motion to Dismiss Indictment Based on the Unlawful Appointment and Funding of Special Counsel Jack Smith is granted in accordance with this Order. The Superseding Indictment is dismissed because Special Counsel Smith's appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution," the order said.
The order noted that Smith's use of a permanent indefinite appropriation also violates the US Constitution's Appropriations Clause.
Smith first charged Trump with 37 counts over his alleged mishandling of classified materials and later issued a superseding indictment adding three more counts.
On July 1st, a ruling by the US Supreme Court made it possible for former President Donald Trump to claim immunity from prosecution on election subversion allegations relating to official conduct as president.
The court cited in its ruling that constitutional separation of powers means "the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts."
Lower courts refused Trump's petition to dismiss the election subversion accusation against him, citing presidential immunity, and declined to rule on whether the alleged activity involved official acts.
In reaction to the ruling, President Joe Biden said that the move sets a "dangerous precedent," that the law is equally imposed on everyone in the US, and that there were "no kings in America."
