Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Politico reports:
The Justice Department on Thursday urged a federal judge to expedite the criminal trial of Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House aide charged with defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 select committee. Speed is important, assistant U.S. attorney Raymond Hulser said, because it might force Navarro to cooperate with the select committee before it dissolves at the end of the year.
“I’m here to express that strong desire by the U.S. attorney to try the case, if possible, while the committee is in existence,” Hulser said, calling the trial a “catalyst” for Navarro’s cooperation. But U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta bristled at the suggestion that criminal proceedings could be a tool to aid the select committee’s investigation. “I don’t want these proceedings to be a lever in the way the U.S. attorneys suggested it might be,” Mehta said.
Read the full article.
MEHTA has moved the trial to Jan. 11, despite DOJ’s preference that the trial go forward while the Jan. 6 committee was still in operaiton.
Mehta seemed put off by that suggestion, wondering why it would matter to DOJ that the committee still be operating during the trial.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 10, 2022
That was a particularly bizarre argument to make. Criminal contempt of Congress has always been considered punitive — a wya to punish defiance — not coercive, to force compliance. That’s what civil contempt/lawsuits are for. Haven’t heard DOJ express that view before.
— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) November 10, 2022