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Wednesday, March 20, 2024

No Lessons Learned!

Pretty stupid.

Donald J. Trump, Republicans and their minions who follow have not learned anything. The folks who participated in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol are being arrested years after the event. However, those who got less than a year in federal time out came out even more dangerous before. They act like that was justified and continue to blame the federal authorities for their own actions.

They claim that the Biden Administration is arresting political opponents and the Jan. 6 rioters are hostages. Trump refers to them as that as well. He plays a rendering of the U.S. National Anthem [Star Spangled Banner] sung by Jan. 6 rioters.

As a result, America has backslide on Democracy.

Biden, Democrats and their minions are showing the world that they have hypocrisy in their fight to preserve democracy. They would protect a foreign country committing an unfair and genocidal war against occupied people. 

Yet, they beg me for their money to help in their campaigns. 

The suspects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.

Isabella DeLuca was arrested last Friday in Irvine, California, on misdemeanor charges, including theft of government property, disorderly conduct and entering a restricted area.

The far right social media influencer has been charged with storming the U.S. Capitol and passing a stolen table out of a broken window, allowing other rioters to use it as a weapon against police, according to court records unsealed on Monday.

DeLuca, who has more than 333,000 followers on the platform formerly known as Twitter, is a former congressional intern who works as a media associate for The Gold Institute for International Strategy. DeLuca’s profile on the institute’s website says she served as an ambassador for the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA.

DeLuca also interned for former U.S. Rep. Lee Zeldin of New York and Rep. Paul Gosar of Arizona, both of whom are Republicans who have supported former President Donald Trump.

Social media influencer and model was at the U.S. Capitol.

DeLuca, 24, of Setauket, New York, didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment. Online court records don’t list an attorney representing her. A spokesperson for the Gold Institute for International Strategy said it learned Monday that DeLuca — who was hired in an unpaid position to update the organization’s social media presence — was facing criminal charges and said, “following further internal investigation, we felt it necessary to sever our relationship.”

During the Jan. 6 riot, DeLuca replied to a Twitter post by writing, “Fight back or let politicians steal and election? Fight back!”

Videos captured her entering a suite of conference rooms inside the Capitol through a broken window on the Lower West Terrace. She passed a table out of the window and then climbed back outside through the same window. A table that another rioter threw at police resembled the one that DeLuca passed out the window, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit.

DeLuca posted about the riot for days after the Jan. 6 attack. When an Instagram user asked her why she supported breaking into the Capitol, she responded, “According to the constitution it’s our house.”

Several days later, she posted on social media that she was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 and had “mixed feelings.”

“People went to the Capitol building because that’s Our House and that’s where we go to take our grievances. People feel, as do I that an election was stolen from them and it was allowed,” she wrote.

When the FBI questioned her roughly two weeks after the Capitol attack, DeLuca denied entering the building on Jan. 6, the agent’s affidavit says.

More than 1,300 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related crimes. Over 800 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds getting a term of imprisonment ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Peter Navarro is beginning his 4 months in federal time out. Navarro, who sought to overturn the 2020 presidential election, is the only former White House official ever imprisoned on a contempt-of-Congress conviction.

On June 2, 2022, a grand jury impaneled in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia indicted Navarro on two counts of contempt of Congress. Count 1 of the indictment alleged Navarro refused to comply with a subpoena to produce documents; Count 2 alleged refusal to comply with a subpoena for testimony. Under the applicable law (2 U.S.C. § 192) each count is a misdemeanor punishable by up to one year imprisonment. Navarro was arrested by deputy U.S. marshals at Reagan National Airport as he was about to board a plane to Nashville. U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on July 15, 2022, signaled that he agreed that the treatment of Navarro at the outset of the criminal case was "unreasonably harsh," noting that the government did not offer self-surrender to Navarro.

Defiance leads to a four month bid. It will not be a luxury cruise.

Navarro claimed that Trump had privately asked him to invoke "executive privilege" over the documents sought by the congressional subpoena. In January 2023, Judge Mehta denied Navarro's effort to dismiss the charges against him, writing, "Defendant has failed to come forward with any evidence to support the claimed assertion of privilege. And, because the claimed assertion of executive privilege is unproven, Defendant cannot avoid prosecution for contempt." Mehta noted that Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino (two other Trump advisors whom the House committee had also sought to prosecute for contempt) had produced letters from Trump, in which the ex-president directed them to assert executive privilege on his behalf. DOJ chose not to prosecute Meadows and Scavino, and Mehta cited Navarro's failure to produce any similar letter from Trump. Mehta also rejected Navarro's bid to argue that the congressional subpoena was procedurally invalid. In a pretrial hearing in August 2023, Navarro claimed that Trump had told him in a February 2022 phone call not to testify to the House committee, but failed to produce any evidence of what Trump actually said in the conversation. Trump had already said he would not testify at Navarro's trial. Two days later, Judge Mehta ruled that Navarro could not claim an "executive privilege" not to testify before the House committee. After the ruling against him, Navarro tried—and failed—to grab a demonstrator's "Trump lost" sign from her at a press conference outside the courthouse.

On September 5, 2023, a jury was seated. Three former congressional committee staffers testified as prosecution witnesses; Navarro declined to testify in his own defense or to offer any witnesses for the defense. Navarro's criminal defense lawyer was Stanley Woodward Jr. After a two-day trial, Navarro was convicted on both counts of contempt of Congress; the jury rejected Navarro's argument that he had not willfully refused to comply with the subpoena. Navarro was the second ex-Trump aide to be convicted of contempt of Congress; Bannon had been convicted of the same offense the preceding year. On January 16, 2024, a federal judge denied Navarro's request for a new trial. On January 25, Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison and ordered to pay a fine of $9,500.

He filed an appeal. Judge Mehta and the appeals court denied his request to stay out of prison during the appeal. In court papers on March 10, Navarro's lawyer said his client was ordered to report to a Miami federal prison by March 19. Navarro then appealed to the Supreme Court to stay the order. On March 18, 2024, Chief Justice John Roberts rejected the appeal in a single-paragraph order, agreeing with the Circuit Court of Appeals order, meaning that Navarro was required to report to a minimum-security federal prison in Florida by 2 p.m. ET the following day. Navarro did so.

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