September 30, 2025 • 44 mins
On this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour, Peter Navarro, White House senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, joins Federalist Senior Elections Correspondent Matt Kittle to share his experience as the first senior White House official ever to be put in prison for contempt of Congress. Navarro also explains the importance of crushing Democrat lawfare now so it can't be further weaponized if the blue party regains power.
You can find Navarro's book I Went to Prison So You Won't Have To: A Love and Lawfare Story in Trump Land here. Read more about Navarro's fight against lawfare here.
If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.
You can find Navarro's book I Went to Prison So You Won't Have To: A Love and Lawfare Story in Trump Land here. Read more about Navarro's fight against lawfare here.
If you care about combating the corrupt media that continue to inflict devastating damage, please give a gift to help The Federalist do the real journalism America needs.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
And we are back with another edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist.
At your experience Shirpa on today's quest for Knowledge. As always,
you can email the show at radio at the Federalist
dot com, follow us on x at FDR LST, make
sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of
(00:40):
course to the premium version of our website as well.
Our guest today is Peter Navarro, senior Trump White House advisor.
Is new book, I Went to Prison So You Won't
have to a love and lawfare story in Trump Land.
Is an absolute inside look at what real political weaponization
(01:03):
looks like. Peter, thank you so much for joining us
in this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I so much appreciated and I've long admired what the
Federalist does in these areas of constitutional law, and that's
what I went to prison so you won't have to.
Is much about, not all about, certainly, because there's several
stories going on, but the US versus Peter Navarro is
(01:29):
destined to be a landmark constitutional case on the separation
of powers. I'm still fighting my appeal even though I've
done my time in prison, as they say, I've got
no personal incentive to fight that appeal. But I feel
very strongly that if we don't what's called settled good
(01:53):
law on the issue of the subpoena power versus the
executive branch, it's going to be really difficult for White
Houses the function without undue interference. So there's a lot
of good law to unpack, there, sir.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
No doubt about it. I think it's an extremely important case.
And I know you probably just want to walk away
from this stuff and say, you know, like I said,
you did your time, you were under constant threat. We're
going to get into that in just a moment, but
that case is absolutely important if you value the separation
(02:35):
of powers in the Constitution.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And let me explain to your listeners here what this
really is all about. I was a senior White House
advisor in the Trump administration the first term, a survivor.
I was only one of three who was there the
whole four years, and we got into a situation in where,
(03:02):
once Congress was controlled by the Democrats, they went subpoena
happy and it wasn't just over J six, it was
over impeachment, impeachment, Russia, hoax, Russias, all sorts of things. Everything, yes,
And the law and policy is very clear that go
(03:23):
dating back to George Washington and the Jay Treaty, the
doctrine of executive privilege was established. And as Washington told Congress,
I can I can no more order you to come
to the White House than you can order me to
(03:43):
go to Capitol Hill, and from there the doctrine of
executive privilege blossomed. The Supreme Court has long recognized that
in order for there to be effective presidential decision making,
there has to be quote candor and confidentiality unquote in
(04:04):
discussions between and among the president and his senior advisors.
And for over fifty years up to the point where
I was indicted, the Department of Justice had a policy
across party lines that senior White Eyes advisors such as
(04:25):
myself had what's called absolute testimonial immunity. So when I
got a subpoena from the J six Committee ordering me
to appear, it was my duty to refuse that subpoena.
If I was going to obey my oath of office,
I had to refuse that subpoena, and it put me
(04:48):
in a Hobson's choice. I mean, either I obeyed my
oath of office, respected an honored executive privilege, and refused
a subpoena and risked prison. I went bent the knee
to that committee and dishonored the privilege and my oath office.
So that's where I found myself was it's really extraordinary
(05:11):
in this age of weaponization of our justice system that
I was the first person ever charged with this crime
as a senior White House advisor, alleged crime, because it
never was before. And here's what's so disturbing about this.
Every single individual that led me on the path that
(05:31):
my incarceration was a Democrat. If you look at the Congress,
the House of Representatives voted on a straight party line
to hold me in contempt Number one, number two. The
Justice Department under Biden had Merrick Garland Matt Graves as
(05:52):
his second in command. There Democrats. The two prosecutors were Democrats,
On Crab and Elizabeth Lloyd. So they come after me.
And then the judge himself, am At Maida was appointed
by Obama after helping Obama raise funds for his campaign.
(06:13):
So politician in black rowe there, and of course the
weird part. Look, you can't make this up. You're going
before a jury in Washington, d C. It's drawn from
what the voter rolls, and they voted in DC. I
think it was ninety two percent for Joe Biden. So
(06:34):
I had a kangaroo core, a kangaroo jury. And then
even after that, when I requested what's called release pending appeal,
which is normally granted for white collar misdemeanors where major
constitutional issues are under appeal, it's always granted, and instead
(07:02):
two Democrat appointed judges, Patricia Malett Cornelia Pillard, decided that
there were no constitutional issues, and then I had to
go to prison before my appeal was heard. And here's
here's the kicker, I mean, federalists, folks, you can't make
this up. The judges that are now hearing my appeal
(07:27):
are the same judges that originally said I had no
issues to do.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And so that's problematic.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yes, that's just problematic. And so the book. I went
to prison, So you won't have to start with my
arrest at the airport for a misdemeanor by five armed
FBI agents. It was circus arrests. They purp walked my fiance.
(07:58):
I wound up in handc and leg irons, and I
have to you know, I have to think it's like,
what's going on here, Jake James Homy just got indicted
for two felonies and he's allowed to self surrender. I mean,
he's not only more of a flight risk than I
(08:19):
ever was, he's well trained in guns and he probably
has a bunch of them sitting around his house. So
I think that my point here is that this was
an obvious, obvious form of weaponization of our justice system
that was wrong. And my whole message is simply in
(08:43):
the book that if we don't hold them accountable, they'll
do it again. Yes, there's no question about that. And
the title of the book's kind of interesting. I went
to prison so you won't have to. It's like I
not only was the first person ever charged with a
crime that wasn't a crime and sent to prison. I
(09:07):
think I believe this is true. I was also the
first person to ever walk out of a federal prison
right after midnight and walk on to the stage of
the Republican National Convention and give a speech.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yes, I was there.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I was there, and that was part of my speech.
It's like a warning. This is a warning. So my
case is very much of a warning. That's much of
what the book is about. But it's also about my
time in prison, how I've used that time very productively
to solve what essentially is a five billion dollar scandal
(09:44):
in the prison system. And of course there's the love
story with my beautiful fiance.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yes, indeed, and I say I was at the GOP convention.
The thousands of thousands of people were at last year's
geo Peak convention, and it was a powerful moment when
you stepped down the stage because the people in that room,
just like people all across Heartland America, people with common sense,
(10:14):
people who support indeed making America great again, knew that
these were, if you'll excuse the turn of phrase, trumped
up charges, not just not just against you, but the
guy who wrote the forward to your book, Steve Bannon,
and others who you know, were prosecuted, intimidated, harassed. You
(10:37):
open the book and you talked a little bit about it.
But the way the book opens is you and your
fiance are heading to Nashville. You've got a nice couple
of days planned, you're really looking forward to it, which
you are thinking in the back of your mind because
you've been dealing this for a while. This was in
what June twenty twenty two, and this tells you how
(11:00):
how long this process was. But there you are, You're
in the airport, You're ready to take off from the
swamp to uh you know, to opry Land, and you
know you think, well, is it coming now? Is the
is the arrest, you know, the strong arming coming now?
And get to a moment where you think, no, maybe
I'm going to have some piece here, and then suddenly
(11:22):
you turn around and here's an FBI agent and several
more coming in.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It was it was a beautiful day by fiance and
we like to play backgam and so were playing back,
just having the time of our lives. She's never been
to Nashville. HU could be Mike. I love the guys.
It's always kind of a pleasure. We get up and
we walk into the gangway, right, so you give new
(11:48):
tickets and then you walk into the gangway there and
we're walking along and I see this guy, FBI agent,
Walter g Or Dean, standing at the end by the
plane door, and I knew right away there was trouble.
And then I looked behind me and there's three armed
(12:11):
fbis coming behind us, two in front of us, and
came on and it's like they can I call the lawyer, No,
give me your phone. It's like, no, I want to
call a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And then it's the handcuffs, and then eventually it's the
leg irons. My fiance. They walk her out. This was unconscionable.
It's like they took her out in front of the public, right,
three armed FBI agents walking her. I mean, it's like,
(12:51):
you don't do that. CNN had had the news before
I did that. I was getting arrested, of course, and yeah,
I met the ghost of John Hinckley. Right, it's like
they walking down. I mean, a lot of this the
book is like it's like a lot of Stephen King,
(13:11):
a lot of Kafka, but there's a lot of kind
of Joseph Joseph Heller Catch twenty two sure, and just
just comic stuff. And it's like I get to the cell.
I'm trying to walk and leg irons. It's not easy.
I get there and the guard makes a point of
telling me that that was the same cell that John
(13:33):
Hinckley was put in the day he shot Reagan, and
I'm thinking to myself, you know, what's why are you
telling this? What's the what's the moral equivalence of a
guy in for a misdemeanor defending the constitution versus an
assassin trying to kill a president? Okay, okidding, yeah, but
that's how that's how they roll in dim land. And
(13:55):
you mentioned earlier, it's like, uh, it wasn't just me,
it was it was Bannon, But it was no, it
was everybody I served with. Every single person I served
with at the high level in the White House paid
some kind of price being targeted. And it was Mike
(14:17):
Flynn seven million dollars in legal feel fees and almost
going to jail, Dance Gavino, Mark Meadows charged with the
same quote crime I was. But they weren't indicted. Were
still trying to get to the bottom of that. I'm
glad they weren't, but you know, what's that all about?
Selective prosecution? But they had to pay millions of dollars.
(14:40):
And then you had four different venues trying to put
Donald Trump in prison, two assassination attempts. They just the
biggest tragedy I've ever seen, the assassination of Charlie Kirk,
They bankrupted America's mayor Rudy Juliani. They took away the
(15:02):
bark cards of John Eastman and Jeff Clark, And what
what is this all about? And what it's all about
is law there, it's politics by other means, to paraphrase,
I think it was class witch and it's just got
(15:25):
to stop. And now we're in a we're in a
period now where we're beginning to hold some of these
people accountable in the law. And the left is all
they're saying is we're weaponizing government. Hey, they call us
fascist and they put put us in prison. Really is that?
(15:45):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So? Uh, it's it's It's something that I know the
Federalist has been fighting against for a long time. But
this is going to be a long protracted fight. And
I'm trying to do my part in the courts and
also by writing this book, which I'm hoping it's a
wake up call and an eye opener to the American
(16:07):
people about just how far down the path of law
fair and the weaponization of government we've gone and we've
got to turn around.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Are we ne a labor force participation disaster? The watch
dout on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day
Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy
and how it affects your wallet. In nineteen fifty, eighty
seven percent of men were in the labor force nineteen
eighty seventy eight percent. Now we're down to just sixty
six percent.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Think about that.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Government handouts and giveaways are not helping. Whether it's happening
in DC or down on Wall Street, it's affecting you financially.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Be informed.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Check out the Watchout on Wall Street podcast with Chris
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, it should be a wake up call. It is
a startling story. And for those who read the pieces
the news accounts from all of this, hopefully you're reading
from the federalists to some reputable sources as opposed to
those in the accomplish media. But like I said, this
has been going on for a long time. The law
(17:18):
fare from the left is it's like rust, it never sleeps,
and so here we are. And I think that the
word that you used is so critical accountability. We have
the Trump administration now attempting to hold accountable people who
(17:38):
absolutely tore up the Constitution in the name of politics.
And I don't know if you saw it, but you
were recently on I Believe an NPR program promoting your book,
and I saw the story. The headline from NPR was
Peter Navarro admits that the Trump administration is weaponizing the
(18:02):
justice system to go after his enemies that went after him.
And I thought that is an interesting read. It's quite
rich from a news organization, of course, that contributed to
the false narratives that we've seen in this country for
(18:22):
so long, and and stood by and appease the weaponization.
What do you think about you know what we're seeing
now from a left wing corporate journalist establishment, the same
ones that said swore up and down that Joe Biden
(18:43):
was the you know, the top of mental health in
the last days of his presidency.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Well, let's break a little news here, because that NPR
interview sticks in my crow for for a big reason,
I've made a.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Habit going back to the first term with Donald Trump,
I've always trying to go on the left of center
shows because we need to just talk to these people
and see if we can have that dialogue. But they
always try to try to screw you. Now, the NPR
thing is really kind of interesting because I went in
there under the assumption I was doing a long form
(19:28):
twenty minute or so interview. They never told me any different.
I went in and did a long form twenty minute
or so interview, and the next thing I know, they're
carving it up into like three minutes of me and
four minutes of that guy editorializing inside and creating a
(19:50):
number of false impressions. And I asked them to simply
put up the whole interview on their website, and so
far they've refused used. So I think I need to
keep pressing that further because if you listen to that interview,
that certainly doesn't comport with that headline at all. Because
(20:11):
my whole point here is accountability. I mean, if you
think about, if you think about what has been done,
let's take let's take the FBI agent Walter Giardina who
put me in handcuffs and leg irons. Okay, why is
this guy interesting? Well, I call him the Forest Gump
(20:36):
of the FBI in Russia hoax because this guy was
involved in according to whistleblowers and news from Chuck Grassley's
Excellent Committee, it's just about every attempt to interfere with
a Trump election or overthrow the Trump White House when
(20:58):
Trump was in office. And again, you can't make this
stuff up. So hear this what started the Russia hoax?
It was the Steel dossier. What do we know about
the Steele dossier? That it was undeniably funded by the
Clinton campaign, it was undeniably false. Those are facts now.
(21:26):
According to whistleblowers, it was Walter g Ordina, the guy
who put me in leg irons, who was one of
the key FBI agents who vetted the Steele dossier at
the FBI and said that it was real, not fake,
and that set in motion the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. It
(21:50):
allowed Comy as director to move forward with the phony
FISA warrants which got Carter Page, and Giordina didn't stop there.
He then went and worked on the Muller report. Whistleblowers
(22:13):
alleged that his laptop mysteriously was a race so we
never got the data. But it doesn't stop there. He
was involved in another operation called Crimson River, which was
the allegation which was false, that the Egyptian government gave
the Trump campaign ten million dollars, totally false, but it
(22:36):
was used by Giordina and the FBI for a bunch
of subpoenas and just a fishing expedition to try to
ensneer Trump, and I can keep going with Arctic frost,
which was the whole J six thing, which was again
the use of the FBI's power to go out in
subpoena whoever the hell they wanted to. And so fast
(23:02):
forward right till just last week and new FBI Director
Cash Mattel found an internal action memo that revealed that
there were over two hundred FBI agents deployed to the
(23:24):
J six riot, and in the after action report, many
of them complained not only about putting being put in
danger without proper training, but also they just went off
on the partison woke nature of the Washington Field office
(23:44):
of the FBI, talking about the asymmetry, for example, between
how the J six riots were dealt with by the
FBI versus ones in Portland and BLM and Floyd and
all that stuff, and very very critical, stating that the
(24:05):
FBI had been turned into a weaponized, woke organization. And
so my arrest, my conviction, my imprisonment is really just
the canary in the coal mine. The poster child, whatever
you wanted, a microcosm and the macrocosm. And in many
(24:26):
ways that's why the story is so interesting, because I
literally got everything bad happened to me except the bullets flying.
And prison is pretty damn dangerous, I might add, And
you can read about that, and I went to prison,
so you won't have to.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yes, indeed, you go into great detail about your prison experience,
and listen, all of what you're talking about is something
that has been very clear from the left, and it's
law fair campaign for a long time time, and that
is process. The process is the punishment. And I think
(25:06):
about a series of investigations I did back in two
thousand and thirteen, fourteen and fifteen in Wisconsin. It was
called the John Doe investigations. They were absolutely the you know,
the archetype of leftist law fare, and they went after
(25:30):
Scott Walker, then the governor of Wisconsin, and anybody who
was an ally, and they had pre dawn armed raids
in neighborhoods with cameras standing by, just as your experience,
you know, and they had leaks. This was supposed to
be all done quietly, which was in itself a problem
(25:53):
because you had the John Doe law in Wisconsin that
made made anybody who talked about this publicly, you know,
subject to jail time and excessive fines, and so they
silenced the people that they arrested. They couldn't even talk
about this without without So I bring all of this
(26:15):
up by way of I remember Congressman Tom Tiffany when
Trump one started and I asked him about what was
going on in Washington, d C. As the president began
his first term, and Congressman Tiffany told me, Matt, what
we saw in Wisconsin over the last several years will
(26:35):
be writ large in Washington, D C. And the Trump administration,
and that is exactly what happened. So with all of
that said, you probably weren't altogether too surprised by what
happened to you and the people that you worked with,
(26:57):
although the experience was white heroin.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I was surprised, but not surprised. Let me unpack that
a little bit. I mean, one of the one of
the things I learned in the first term was that
as a senior White House advisor, I had a duty
to refuse any congressional subpoena because of the constitutional separation
(27:25):
of powers and the way I learned it was observing
what happened to nearly a dozen of my fellow senior
White House advisors who got subpoenas for various reasons from
the Hill. I'm thinking Don McGan, I'm thinking Rob Porter,
(27:47):
Rick Dearborn, Kelly and Conway, a whole long list of
these people. And every time the subpoena came in, they
refused to go, and the Justice Department affirmed and then
reaffirmed the absolute testimonial immunity of senior Wife's House advisors,
(28:10):
and none of them ever was held in contempt. And
one of the cases, Kelly Ann Conway's case, was really
important because the case they tried to make the case
that because she was talking about things other than what
(28:31):
might be construed as her official duties, she had to
appear on the Hill, and the court said no, not
even in that case. Was at the case. So there
was no question in my mind that I had a
duty to refuse the subpoena, and that I thought that
(28:55):
there was at least a decent chance that they wouldn't
go forward. But I also knew that the times had
changed and that these people in the Biden regime were
ruthless and they were feeling their law fare oats and
they might well go after me. But I had a
(29:17):
decision to make. I made it. I don't regret it.
Four months in prison is no country for old men.
But what was the alternative? It was to dishonor my
oath of office and this country. And look, there's a
lot of men and women who lost their lives out
(29:38):
there defending the constitution. At the least I could do
was stand up.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You mentioned it in your book about how close your
residence was to the FBI, to the DC court, they
could have basically even if they had to take you
into custody, as you mentioned and before, James Comy will
have the at least the the privilege now, it seems,
(30:07):
but he'll have law enforcement agencies being decent enough to
allow him to turn himself in and surrender to the charges.
You know, they made this very public, They made this
very hurtful to you and your fiance for a reason
because more than anything, it was the show. Now, what
(30:31):
your book really gets at, and what NPR seemed to
miss in all of this, is that if these people
are not held accountable now and they get back into power,
it's Katie bar the door. It is all hell broke loose,
not only on senior White House officials, not only you know,
(30:54):
highly connected influential individuals in Washington. You see, it's the
average person. I mean that that is, isn't it what
this is really ultimately all about.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
If they can come from me, they can come from
Donald Trump, they can come for anybody. And when we know,
I mean, look the school board members, people going before
the school board, places like Texas suddenly become branded domestic terrorists. Right,
(31:30):
people who go and peacefully protest and an abortion clinic
go to jail. It's like, yeah, they can come for anyone.
And that's that's frightening and it should be frightening to
the American public. And that's a lot of what's at stake.
And you know, like, I'd like to think that my
(31:53):
imprisonment did not go in vain Certaly, have I settled
good law in the case, then that will be a
contribution to the country. But I also believe that Donald
Trump would have won the election in a landslide regardless.
But it wasn't just that election wasn't just about the
border and inflation and fair trade and in indo analysts
(32:18):
wars It was also the growing realization by a white
swath of the American people that our justice system was
being weaponized by the Democrats against Donald Trump and Republicans,
and that that shouldn't happen, and that got people angry
(32:40):
and mobilized, at least in some case, so at least
and my case was it brought that into full relief.
I mean, certainly you had the President's mar A Lago raid,
but when you compare that also to me being put
in leg irons, it's just it was all so outrageous.
(33:02):
And Chuck Grassley, Senator Chuck Grassley's doing a great job.
I mean, one of the things that he found was
a set of emails where when they at the FBI
found out that I'd been indicted, there was elation. I mean,
what's that all about? Why are these people happy that
(33:24):
a senior White House advisor and look, I call these
guys good Nazis. You know, he's politically correct to say, well,
there's a lot of good agents at the FBI. And
why didn't any of them speak up when they went
(33:44):
after the Boston mar A Lago. Why didn't any of
them speak up when they took me down at Reagan.
Why didn't anybody speak up when they showed up at
the crack of dawn at Jeff Clark's house and scared
the hell out of his young children and terrorized him.
I just there's something fundamentally wrong here with the culture
(34:12):
of the FBI. It's like, for me, it's like the
broken Windows thing. It's like, once the Democrats realized they
could start doing this, they kept they started doing it
more and in broader strokes, and they got to be
held accountable. There's a long list. I mean, it's comy, certainly,
(34:32):
but if you look at broadly at the Russia hoax,
it's Clapper, Brennan, Page Strock, Schiff who lied to Congress.
These people all need to be investigated at a minimum.
I mean, I'm not saying they're guilty, but I'm saying
they look pretty guilty, and they ought to be investigated.
(34:55):
And this guy, Giar Dina, I mean, he should be subpoened.
And and why did they you know, who ordered him
to arrest me the way they did. I'd love to
know that the judge in my case wouldn't let me
get to that information. Why because he wanted to hide it?
Did this go all the way up to Merrick Garland
(35:17):
maybe went to the White House, and the White House
was very active in my case as well. Again for
the federalist audience, this is an interesting legal point that
my case needs to get settled. Just as I was
timing is everything. This shows there's no coincidences. Just as
(35:38):
they were getting ready to make a case against me
at the Justice Department and I'm defending myself on the
basis of executive privilege, Joe Biden's White House legal consul
Jonathan Sue sends over a memo telling me and everybody
else that Biden was revoking the executive privilege of President
(36:04):
Trump with respect to this issue. Now that's absurd on
its face. A stitting president can't take away the executive
privilege of a former president. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
has already ruled on that. But they tried to do that,
(36:25):
and it was like what the timing of it was
so suspect that we filed the motion in the court
asking for some discovery on this, and my judge, Amatmeta,
I call him a clever jackal found a way around
our motion not to grant the motion, and that's what
he always did. We filed motion after motion to try
(36:47):
to allow me to get a defense in that court,
and he would always find a clever way to rule
against us. And by the time I got to the
jury trial, Judge Ahmett made it had stripped me of
every single possible defense, full stop. Think about that federalist audience.
(37:10):
You go into court and you're not even allowed to say,
in my case, the words executive privilege without being held
in contempt at court. So I had no defense. They
turned the whole thing into a speeding ticket. You know, Okay,
you didn't show up, You're guilty. It's not that's not
(37:31):
what the law is. That's not what DOJ policy was
for fifty years. That's not what George Washington established with
the Jay Treaty. But that's the way they rolled. And
I'm telling you they're coming for us. That's just me.
I mean, look, if they get the House back, the
(37:52):
Democrats get the House back in twenty twenty six, this
country is going to grind to an absolute halt because
all we're going to do is see subpoenas. Subpoena is
subpoena is impeachments. Impeachment experience hoages, hoages hoages and it's remarkable.
Everything they've thrown at Donald Trump, it always is false.
(38:15):
Yet they are able to use that falseness as a
way of penalizing us, whether it's just lawyer fees, whether
it's taking the bar cards away from EA spinning Clark,
or whether it's inciting violence against us, putting us in prison.
(38:36):
And I mean it'd be a very dangerous place now
for White House officials.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, it is interesting that the left of the Democratic
Party in this country talks about and pursues the law
through lawfare and has absolutely no respect for it. In fact,
what they all timately respect is power and regaining power.
(39:04):
At this point, my final question for you is this,
we talk about accountability, and that's what this really is
all about. The left end, their accomplice media pals can
paint it any way they want, but people broke the law.
James Comy is charged with obstruction, obstructing justice, lying under oath,
(39:29):
and that has to go through a process and that
shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. That has been a
concern and an allegation for a long time. But he
wasn't held accountable. James Clapper could be in the same boat.
But again, there are statutes of limitation on all of
these sorts of things, and so you have to act now,
(39:51):
and with this very limited window up through potentially the
end of twenty twenty six, do you believe there really
will will be accountability and meaningful accountability?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Well, I hope so for the for the sake of
our republic, because if we don't hold them accountable, they
will keep doing this and and we need that accountability.
It's it's the old testament. It's it's if if, if
there's not punishment. I mean, that's why we have a
(40:26):
punishment system and the prison systems to begin with, punish
people for doing things that are unlawful, and certainly, uh
what has been done, particularly with respect to things like
the Russia hoax. I mean that's and by the way,
I'll leave you with this thought. It's like, if you
(40:48):
simply use the legal theories and strategies of people like
Jack Smith who went after Donald Trump, there's no statute
of limitations as I understand on and this was a
conspiracy that involved a lot of people to basically interfere
with our elections, and it was also an insurrection in
(41:11):
that when Trump was in office, they tried to get
him out of office using lawfare in ways, which was
just there was no justifiable legal reason for what they did. So,
as the boss says, let's see what happens. I hope
the federalist folks will cover my case as it moves
(41:36):
forward from the appeals court most likely to the Supreme Court.
And I went to prison, so you won't have to
hope you'll take a look at this book. It's a
great story about weaponized government, but also it's pretty funny
(41:56):
and humorous and if you want to know what it's
like to go to prison for a misdemeanor, And don't
forget the love story with my sweet Pixie, because she
did the time with me. That's the punchline there. That's
what these people don't understand. And by the way, Tomy,
the first thing he does when he gets indicted is
(42:17):
implicates his family. Okay, he didn't give a whatever about
Mike Flynn's family when he and trapped Mike Flynn and
cost him seven million dollars. And the FBI didn't care
about my fiance or family when they put me in
leg irons. So don't play that card, James, Just don't
(42:40):
play that card because it's just that dog won't hunt.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Okay, Yeah, that's that's the sad thing about all of this, really,
is that we talk about the people who have abused
the law in this country, they've been rewarded for it.
Peter Struck got a two million settlement in a rigged
system in the Biden court, the Biden administration, I should say,
(43:06):
he was rewarded for that, and so was his paramore
lease a page. And James Kobe has been rewarded and
what is he doing. He's setting up seashells on the beach, right, So.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Sore, we have Brennan. It's like the whole CNN lineup
is the lineup for the Russias, I mean contributors. Is like,
you can't make that stuff up. And they're so pompous
and arrogant about it. That's what bothers me. That's what
ultimately bothers me. They're so there's so arrogant about about
(43:39):
just waging law fare on people who did nothing other
than to serve their country.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
And that's but Peter, why wouldn't they be why wouldn't
they be so smug They've gotten away with it for years.
The system is built and rigged to their benefits, not
to the benefit ultimately of the American people. So not
surprising at all, and this book really gets into all
(44:08):
of that. Thanks to my guest today, Peter Navarro, senior
Trump White House advisor, his new book, I Went to
Prison So You Won't have to a love and lawfare
story in trump Land. It's an insider's look at what
real political weaponization looks like. You've been listening to another
edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior
(44:28):
Elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more.
Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.
And we are back with another edition of the Federalist
Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior Elections correspondent at the Federalist.
At your experience Shirpa on today's quest for Knowledge. As always,
you can email the show at radio at the Federalist
dot com, follow us on x at FDR LST, make
sure to subscribe wherever you download your podcast, and of
(00:40):
course to the premium version of our website as well.
Our guest today is Peter Navarro, senior Trump White House advisor.
Is new book, I Went to Prison So You Won't
have to a love and lawfare story in Trump Land.
Is an absolute inside look at what real political weaponization
(01:03):
looks like. Peter, thank you so much for joining us
in this edition of the Federalist Radio Hour.
Speaker 2 (01:08):
I so much appreciated and I've long admired what the
Federalist does in these areas of constitutional law, and that's
what I went to prison so you won't have to.
Is much about, not all about, certainly, because there's several
stories going on, but the US versus Peter Navarro is
(01:29):
destined to be a landmark constitutional case on the separation
of powers. I'm still fighting my appeal even though I've
done my time in prison, as they say, I've got
no personal incentive to fight that appeal. But I feel
very strongly that if we don't what's called settled good
(01:53):
law on the issue of the subpoena power versus the
executive branch, it's going to be really difficult for White
Houses the function without undue interference. So there's a lot
of good law to unpack, there, sir.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
No doubt about it. I think it's an extremely important case.
And I know you probably just want to walk away
from this stuff and say, you know, like I said,
you did your time, you were under constant threat. We're
going to get into that in just a moment, but
that case is absolutely important if you value the separation
(02:35):
of powers in the Constitution.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
And let me explain to your listeners here what this
really is all about. I was a senior White House
advisor in the Trump administration the first term, a survivor.
I was only one of three who was there the
whole four years, and we got into a situation in where,
(03:02):
once Congress was controlled by the Democrats, they went subpoena
happy and it wasn't just over J six, it was
over impeachment, impeachment, Russia, hoax, Russias, all sorts of things. Everything, yes,
And the law and policy is very clear that go
(03:23):
dating back to George Washington and the Jay Treaty, the
doctrine of executive privilege was established. And as Washington told Congress,
I can I can no more order you to come
to the White House than you can order me to
(03:43):
go to Capitol Hill, and from there the doctrine of
executive privilege blossomed. The Supreme Court has long recognized that
in order for there to be effective presidential decision making,
there has to be quote candor and confidentiality unquote in
(04:04):
discussions between and among the president and his senior advisors.
And for over fifty years up to the point where
I was indicted, the Department of Justice had a policy
across party lines that senior White Eyes advisors such as
(04:25):
myself had what's called absolute testimonial immunity. So when I
got a subpoena from the J six Committee ordering me
to appear, it was my duty to refuse that subpoena.
If I was going to obey my oath of office,
I had to refuse that subpoena, and it put me
(04:48):
in a Hobson's choice. I mean, either I obeyed my
oath of office, respected an honored executive privilege, and refused
a subpoena and risked prison. I went bent the knee
to that committee and dishonored the privilege and my oath office.
So that's where I found myself was it's really extraordinary
(05:11):
in this age of weaponization of our justice system that
I was the first person ever charged with this crime
as a senior White House advisor, alleged crime, because it
never was before. And here's what's so disturbing about this.
Every single individual that led me on the path that
(05:31):
my incarceration was a Democrat. If you look at the Congress,
the House of Representatives voted on a straight party line
to hold me in contempt Number one, number two. The
Justice Department under Biden had Merrick Garland Matt Graves as
(05:52):
his second in command. There Democrats. The two prosecutors were Democrats,
On Crab and Elizabeth Lloyd. So they come after me.
And then the judge himself, am At Maida was appointed
by Obama after helping Obama raise funds for his campaign.
(06:13):
So politician in black rowe there, and of course the
weird part. Look, you can't make this up. You're going
before a jury in Washington, d C. It's drawn from
what the voter rolls, and they voted in DC. I
think it was ninety two percent for Joe Biden. So
(06:34):
I had a kangaroo core, a kangaroo jury. And then
even after that, when I requested what's called release pending appeal,
which is normally granted for white collar misdemeanors where major
constitutional issues are under appeal, it's always granted, and instead
(07:02):
two Democrat appointed judges, Patricia Malett Cornelia Pillard, decided that
there were no constitutional issues, and then I had to
go to prison before my appeal was heard. And here's
here's the kicker, I mean, federalists, folks, you can't make
this up. The judges that are now hearing my appeal
(07:27):
are the same judges that originally said I had no
issues to do.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
And so that's problematic.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
Yes, that's just problematic. And so the book. I went
to prison, So you won't have to start with my
arrest at the airport for a misdemeanor by five armed
FBI agents. It was circus arrests. They purp walked my fiance.
(07:58):
I wound up in handc and leg irons, and I
have to you know, I have to think it's like,
what's going on here, Jake James Homy just got indicted
for two felonies and he's allowed to self surrender. I mean,
he's not only more of a flight risk than I
(08:19):
ever was, he's well trained in guns and he probably
has a bunch of them sitting around his house. So
I think that my point here is that this was
an obvious, obvious form of weaponization of our justice system
that was wrong. And my whole message is simply in
(08:43):
the book that if we don't hold them accountable, they'll
do it again. Yes, there's no question about that. And
the title of the book's kind of interesting. I went
to prison so you won't have to. It's like I
not only was the first person ever charged with a
crime that wasn't a crime and sent to prison. I
(09:07):
think I believe this is true. I was also the
first person to ever walk out of a federal prison
right after midnight and walk on to the stage of
the Republican National Convention and give a speech.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yes, I was there.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
I was there, and that was part of my speech.
It's like a warning. This is a warning. So my
case is very much of a warning. That's much of
what the book is about. But it's also about my
time in prison, how I've used that time very productively
to solve what essentially is a five billion dollar scandal
(09:44):
in the prison system. And of course there's the love
story with my beautiful fiance.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
Yes, indeed, and I say I was at the GOP convention.
The thousands of thousands of people were at last year's
geo Peak convention, and it was a powerful moment when
you stepped down the stage because the people in that room,
just like people all across Heartland America, people with common sense,
(10:14):
people who support indeed making America great again, knew that
these were, if you'll excuse the turn of phrase, trumped
up charges, not just not just against you, but the
guy who wrote the forward to your book, Steve Bannon,
and others who you know, were prosecuted, intimidated, harassed. You
(10:37):
open the book and you talked a little bit about it.
But the way the book opens is you and your
fiance are heading to Nashville. You've got a nice couple
of days planned, you're really looking forward to it, which
you are thinking in the back of your mind because
you've been dealing this for a while. This was in
what June twenty twenty two, and this tells you how
(11:00):
how long this process was. But there you are, You're
in the airport, You're ready to take off from the
swamp to uh you know, to opry Land, and you
know you think, well, is it coming now? Is the
is the arrest, you know, the strong arming coming now?
And get to a moment where you think, no, maybe
I'm going to have some piece here, and then suddenly
(11:22):
you turn around and here's an FBI agent and several
more coming in.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
It was it was a beautiful day by fiance and
we like to play backgam and so were playing back,
just having the time of our lives. She's never been
to Nashville. HU could be Mike. I love the guys.
It's always kind of a pleasure. We get up and
we walk into the gangway, right, so you give new
(11:48):
tickets and then you walk into the gangway there and
we're walking along and I see this guy, FBI agent,
Walter g Or Dean, standing at the end by the
plane door, and I knew right away there was trouble.
And then I looked behind me and there's three armed
(12:11):
fbis coming behind us, two in front of us, and
came on and it's like they can I call the lawyer, No,
give me your phone. It's like, no, I want to
call a lawyer.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
No.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
And then it's the handcuffs, and then eventually it's the
leg irons. My fiance. They walk her out. This was unconscionable.
It's like they took her out in front of the public, right,
three armed FBI agents walking her. I mean, it's like,
(12:51):
you don't do that. CNN had had the news before
I did that. I was getting arrested, of course, and yeah,
I met the ghost of John Hinckley. Right, it's like
they walking down. I mean, a lot of this the
book is like it's like a lot of Stephen King,
(13:11):
a lot of Kafka, but there's a lot of kind
of Joseph Joseph Heller Catch twenty two sure, and just
just comic stuff. And it's like I get to the cell.
I'm trying to walk and leg irons. It's not easy.
I get there and the guard makes a point of
telling me that that was the same cell that John
(13:33):
Hinckley was put in the day he shot Reagan, and
I'm thinking to myself, you know, what's why are you
telling this? What's the what's the moral equivalence of a
guy in for a misdemeanor defending the constitution versus an
assassin trying to kill a president? Okay, okidding, yeah, but
that's how that's how they roll in dim land. And
(13:55):
you mentioned earlier, it's like, uh, it wasn't just me,
it was it was Bannon, But it was no, it
was everybody I served with. Every single person I served
with at the high level in the White House paid
some kind of price being targeted. And it was Mike
(14:17):
Flynn seven million dollars in legal feel fees and almost
going to jail, Dance Gavino, Mark Meadows charged with the
same quote crime I was. But they weren't indicted. Were
still trying to get to the bottom of that. I'm
glad they weren't, but you know, what's that all about?
Selective prosecution? But they had to pay millions of dollars.
(14:40):
And then you had four different venues trying to put
Donald Trump in prison, two assassination attempts. They just the
biggest tragedy I've ever seen, the assassination of Charlie Kirk,
They bankrupted America's mayor Rudy Juliani. They took away the
(15:02):
bark cards of John Eastman and Jeff Clark, And what
what is this all about? And what it's all about
is law there, it's politics by other means, to paraphrase,
I think it was class witch and it's just got
(15:25):
to stop. And now we're in a we're in a
period now where we're beginning to hold some of these
people accountable in the law. And the left is all
they're saying is we're weaponizing government. Hey, they call us
fascist and they put put us in prison. Really is that?
(15:45):
Is that?
Speaker 3 (15:46):
It?
Speaker 2 (15:46):
So? Uh, it's it's It's something that I know the
Federalist has been fighting against for a long time. But
this is going to be a long protracted fight. And
I'm trying to do my part in the courts and
also by writing this book, which I'm hoping it's a
wake up call and an eye opener to the American
(16:07):
people about just how far down the path of law
fair and the weaponization of government we've gone and we've
got to turn around.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
Are we ne a labor force participation disaster? The watch
dout on Wall Street podcast with Chris Markowski. Every day
Chris helps unpack the connection between politics and the economy
and how it affects your wallet. In nineteen fifty, eighty
seven percent of men were in the labor force nineteen
eighty seventy eight percent. Now we're down to just sixty
six percent.
Speaker 2 (16:39):
Think about that.
Speaker 3 (16:40):
Government handouts and giveaways are not helping. Whether it's happening
in DC or down on Wall Street, it's affecting you financially.
Speaker 1 (16:46):
Be informed.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Check out the Watchout on Wall Street podcast with Chris
Markowski on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcast.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Yeah, it should be a wake up call. It is
a startling story. And for those who read the pieces
the news accounts from all of this, hopefully you're reading
from the federalists to some reputable sources as opposed to
those in the accomplish media. But like I said, this
has been going on for a long time. The law
(17:18):
fare from the left is it's like rust, it never sleeps,
and so here we are. And I think that the
word that you used is so critical accountability. We have
the Trump administration now attempting to hold accountable people who
(17:38):
absolutely tore up the Constitution in the name of politics.
And I don't know if you saw it, but you
were recently on I Believe an NPR program promoting your book,
and I saw the story. The headline from NPR was
Peter Navarro admits that the Trump administration is weaponizing the
(18:02):
justice system to go after his enemies that went after him.
And I thought that is an interesting read. It's quite
rich from a news organization, of course, that contributed to
the false narratives that we've seen in this country for
(18:22):
so long, and and stood by and appease the weaponization.
What do you think about you know what we're seeing
now from a left wing corporate journalist establishment, the same
ones that said swore up and down that Joe Biden
(18:43):
was the you know, the top of mental health in
the last days of his presidency.
Speaker 4 (18:52):
Well, let's break a little news here, because that NPR
interview sticks in my crow for for a big reason,
I've made a.
Speaker 2 (19:04):
Habit going back to the first term with Donald Trump,
I've always trying to go on the left of center
shows because we need to just talk to these people
and see if we can have that dialogue. But they
always try to try to screw you. Now, the NPR
thing is really kind of interesting because I went in
there under the assumption I was doing a long form
(19:28):
twenty minute or so interview. They never told me any different.
I went in and did a long form twenty minute
or so interview, and the next thing I know, they're
carving it up into like three minutes of me and
four minutes of that guy editorializing inside and creating a
(19:50):
number of false impressions. And I asked them to simply
put up the whole interview on their website, and so
far they've refused used. So I think I need to
keep pressing that further because if you listen to that interview,
that certainly doesn't comport with that headline at all. Because
(20:11):
my whole point here is accountability. I mean, if you
think about, if you think about what has been done,
let's take let's take the FBI agent Walter Giardina who
put me in handcuffs and leg irons. Okay, why is
this guy interesting? Well, I call him the Forest Gump
(20:36):
of the FBI in Russia hoax because this guy was
involved in according to whistleblowers and news from Chuck Grassley's
Excellent Committee, it's just about every attempt to interfere with
a Trump election or overthrow the Trump White House when
(20:58):
Trump was in office. And again, you can't make this
stuff up. So hear this what started the Russia hoax?
It was the Steel dossier. What do we know about
the Steele dossier? That it was undeniably funded by the
Clinton campaign, it was undeniably false. Those are facts now.
(21:26):
According to whistleblowers, it was Walter g Ordina, the guy
who put me in leg irons, who was one of
the key FBI agents who vetted the Steele dossier at
the FBI and said that it was real, not fake,
and that set in motion the Crossfire Hurricane investigation. It
(21:50):
allowed Comy as director to move forward with the phony
FISA warrants which got Carter Page, and Giordina didn't stop there.
He then went and worked on the Muller report. Whistleblowers
(22:13):
alleged that his laptop mysteriously was a race so we
never got the data. But it doesn't stop there. He
was involved in another operation called Crimson River, which was
the allegation which was false, that the Egyptian government gave
the Trump campaign ten million dollars, totally false, but it
(22:36):
was used by Giordina and the FBI for a bunch
of subpoenas and just a fishing expedition to try to
ensneer Trump, and I can keep going with Arctic frost,
which was the whole J six thing, which was again
the use of the FBI's power to go out in
subpoena whoever the hell they wanted to. And so fast
(23:02):
forward right till just last week and new FBI Director
Cash Mattel found an internal action memo that revealed that
there were over two hundred FBI agents deployed to the
(23:24):
J six riot, and in the after action report, many
of them complained not only about putting being put in
danger without proper training, but also they just went off
on the partison woke nature of the Washington Field office
(23:44):
of the FBI, talking about the asymmetry, for example, between
how the J six riots were dealt with by the
FBI versus ones in Portland and BLM and Floyd and
all that stuff, and very very critical, stating that the
(24:05):
FBI had been turned into a weaponized, woke organization. And
so my arrest, my conviction, my imprisonment is really just
the canary in the coal mine. The poster child, whatever
you wanted, a microcosm and the macrocosm. And in many
(24:26):
ways that's why the story is so interesting, because I
literally got everything bad happened to me except the bullets flying.
And prison is pretty damn dangerous, I might add, And
you can read about that, and I went to prison,
so you won't have to.
Speaker 1 (24:45):
Yes, indeed, you go into great detail about your prison experience,
and listen, all of what you're talking about is something
that has been very clear from the left, and it's
law fair campaign for a long time time, and that
is process. The process is the punishment. And I think
(25:06):
about a series of investigations I did back in two
thousand and thirteen, fourteen and fifteen in Wisconsin. It was
called the John Doe investigations. They were absolutely the you know,
the archetype of leftist law fare, and they went after
(25:30):
Scott Walker, then the governor of Wisconsin, and anybody who
was an ally, and they had pre dawn armed raids
in neighborhoods with cameras standing by, just as your experience,
you know, and they had leaks. This was supposed to
be all done quietly, which was in itself a problem
(25:53):
because you had the John Doe law in Wisconsin that
made made anybody who talked about this publicly, you know,
subject to jail time and excessive fines, and so they
silenced the people that they arrested. They couldn't even talk
about this without without So I bring all of this
(26:15):
up by way of I remember Congressman Tom Tiffany when
Trump one started and I asked him about what was
going on in Washington, d C. As the president began
his first term, and Congressman Tiffany told me, Matt, what
we saw in Wisconsin over the last several years will
(26:35):
be writ large in Washington, D C. And the Trump administration,
and that is exactly what happened. So with all of
that said, you probably weren't altogether too surprised by what
happened to you and the people that you worked with,
(26:57):
although the experience was white heroin.
Speaker 2 (27:02):
I was surprised, but not surprised. Let me unpack that
a little bit. I mean, one of the one of
the things I learned in the first term was that
as a senior White House advisor, I had a duty
to refuse any congressional subpoena because of the constitutional separation
(27:25):
of powers and the way I learned it was observing
what happened to nearly a dozen of my fellow senior
White House advisors who got subpoenas for various reasons from
the Hill. I'm thinking Don McGan, I'm thinking Rob Porter,
(27:47):
Rick Dearborn, Kelly and Conway, a whole long list of
these people. And every time the subpoena came in, they
refused to go, and the Justice Department affirmed and then
reaffirmed the absolute testimonial immunity of senior Wife's House advisors,
(28:10):
and none of them ever was held in contempt. And
one of the cases, Kelly Ann Conway's case, was really
important because the case they tried to make the case
that because she was talking about things other than what
(28:31):
might be construed as her official duties, she had to
appear on the Hill, and the court said no, not
even in that case. Was at the case. So there
was no question in my mind that I had a
duty to refuse the subpoena, and that I thought that
(28:55):
there was at least a decent chance that they wouldn't
go forward. But I also knew that the times had
changed and that these people in the Biden regime were
ruthless and they were feeling their law fare oats and
they might well go after me. But I had a
(29:17):
decision to make. I made it. I don't regret it.
Four months in prison is no country for old men.
But what was the alternative? It was to dishonor my
oath of office and this country. And look, there's a
lot of men and women who lost their lives out
(29:38):
there defending the constitution. At the least I could do
was stand up.
Speaker 1 (29:44):
You mentioned it in your book about how close your
residence was to the FBI, to the DC court, they
could have basically even if they had to take you
into custody, as you mentioned and before, James Comy will
have the at least the the privilege now, it seems,
(30:07):
but he'll have law enforcement agencies being decent enough to
allow him to turn himself in and surrender to the charges.
You know, they made this very public, They made this
very hurtful to you and your fiance for a reason
because more than anything, it was the show. Now, what
(30:31):
your book really gets at, and what NPR seemed to
miss in all of this, is that if these people
are not held accountable now and they get back into power,
it's Katie bar the door. It is all hell broke loose,
not only on senior White House officials, not only you know,
(30:54):
highly connected influential individuals in Washington. You see, it's the
average person. I mean that that is, isn't it what
this is really ultimately all about.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
If they can come from me, they can come from
Donald Trump, they can come for anybody. And when we know,
I mean, look the school board members, people going before
the school board, places like Texas suddenly become branded domestic terrorists. Right,
(31:30):
people who go and peacefully protest and an abortion clinic
go to jail. It's like, yeah, they can come for anyone.
And that's that's frightening and it should be frightening to
the American public. And that's a lot of what's at stake.
And you know, like, I'd like to think that my
(31:53):
imprisonment did not go in vain Certaly, have I settled
good law in the case, then that will be a
contribution to the country. But I also believe that Donald
Trump would have won the election in a landslide regardless.
But it wasn't just that election wasn't just about the
border and inflation and fair trade and in indo analysts
(32:18):
wars It was also the growing realization by a white
swath of the American people that our justice system was
being weaponized by the Democrats against Donald Trump and Republicans,
and that that shouldn't happen, and that got people angry
(32:40):
and mobilized, at least in some case, so at least
and my case was it brought that into full relief.
I mean, certainly you had the President's mar A Lago raid,
but when you compare that also to me being put
in leg irons, it's just it was all so outrageous.
(33:02):
And Chuck Grassley, Senator Chuck Grassley's doing a great job.
I mean, one of the things that he found was
a set of emails where when they at the FBI
found out that I'd been indicted, there was elation. I mean,
what's that all about? Why are these people happy that
(33:24):
a senior White House advisor and look, I call these
guys good Nazis. You know, he's politically correct to say, well,
there's a lot of good agents at the FBI. And
why didn't any of them speak up when they went
(33:44):
after the Boston mar A Lago. Why didn't any of
them speak up when they took me down at Reagan.
Why didn't anybody speak up when they showed up at
the crack of dawn at Jeff Clark's house and scared
the hell out of his young children and terrorized him.
I just there's something fundamentally wrong here with the culture
(34:12):
of the FBI. It's like, for me, it's like the
broken Windows thing. It's like, once the Democrats realized they
could start doing this, they kept they started doing it
more and in broader strokes, and they got to be
held accountable. There's a long list. I mean, it's comy, certainly,
(34:32):
but if you look at broadly at the Russia hoax,
it's Clapper, Brennan, Page Strock, Schiff who lied to Congress.
These people all need to be investigated at a minimum.
I mean, I'm not saying they're guilty, but I'm saying
they look pretty guilty, and they ought to be investigated.
(34:55):
And this guy, Giar Dina, I mean, he should be subpoened.
And and why did they you know, who ordered him
to arrest me the way they did. I'd love to
know that the judge in my case wouldn't let me
get to that information. Why because he wanted to hide it?
Did this go all the way up to Merrick Garland
(35:17):
maybe went to the White House, and the White House
was very active in my case as well. Again for
the federalist audience, this is an interesting legal point that
my case needs to get settled. Just as I was
timing is everything. This shows there's no coincidences. Just as
(35:38):
they were getting ready to make a case against me
at the Justice Department and I'm defending myself on the
basis of executive privilege, Joe Biden's White House legal consul
Jonathan Sue sends over a memo telling me and everybody
else that Biden was revoking the executive privilege of President
(36:04):
Trump with respect to this issue. Now that's absurd on
its face. A stitting president can't take away the executive
privilege of a former president. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh
has already ruled on that. But they tried to do that,
(36:25):
and it was like what the timing of it was
so suspect that we filed the motion in the court
asking for some discovery on this, and my judge, Amatmeta,
I call him a clever jackal found a way around
our motion not to grant the motion, and that's what
he always did. We filed motion after motion to try
(36:47):
to allow me to get a defense in that court,
and he would always find a clever way to rule
against us. And by the time I got to the
jury trial, Judge Ahmett made it had stripped me of
every single possible defense, full stop. Think about that federalist audience.
(37:10):
You go into court and you're not even allowed to say,
in my case, the words executive privilege without being held
in contempt at court. So I had no defense. They
turned the whole thing into a speeding ticket. You know, Okay,
you didn't show up, You're guilty. It's not that's not
(37:31):
what the law is. That's not what DOJ policy was
for fifty years. That's not what George Washington established with
the Jay Treaty. But that's the way they rolled. And
I'm telling you they're coming for us. That's just me.
I mean, look, if they get the House back, the
(37:52):
Democrats get the House back in twenty twenty six, this
country is going to grind to an absolute halt because
all we're going to do is see subpoenas. Subpoena is
subpoena is impeachments. Impeachment experience hoages, hoages hoages and it's remarkable.
Everything they've thrown at Donald Trump, it always is false.
(38:15):
Yet they are able to use that falseness as a
way of penalizing us, whether it's just lawyer fees, whether
it's taking the bar cards away from EA spinning Clark,
or whether it's inciting violence against us, putting us in prison.
(38:36):
And I mean it'd be a very dangerous place now
for White House officials.
Speaker 1 (38:43):
Yeah, it is interesting that the left of the Democratic
Party in this country talks about and pursues the law
through lawfare and has absolutely no respect for it. In fact,
what they all timately respect is power and regaining power.
(39:04):
At this point, my final question for you is this,
we talk about accountability, and that's what this really is
all about. The left end, their accomplice media pals can
paint it any way they want, but people broke the law.
James Comy is charged with obstruction, obstructing justice, lying under oath,
(39:29):
and that has to go through a process and that
shouldn't be a surprise to anybody. That has been a
concern and an allegation for a long time. But he
wasn't held accountable. James Clapper could be in the same boat.
But again, there are statutes of limitation on all of
these sorts of things, and so you have to act now,
(39:51):
and with this very limited window up through potentially the
end of twenty twenty six, do you believe there really
will will be accountability and meaningful accountability?
Speaker 2 (40:05):
Well, I hope so for the for the sake of
our republic, because if we don't hold them accountable, they
will keep doing this and and we need that accountability.
It's it's the old testament. It's it's if if, if
there's not punishment. I mean, that's why we have a
(40:26):
punishment system and the prison systems to begin with, punish
people for doing things that are unlawful, and certainly, uh
what has been done, particularly with respect to things like
the Russia hoax. I mean that's and by the way,
I'll leave you with this thought. It's like, if you
(40:48):
simply use the legal theories and strategies of people like
Jack Smith who went after Donald Trump, there's no statute
of limitations as I understand on and this was a
conspiracy that involved a lot of people to basically interfere
with our elections, and it was also an insurrection in
(41:11):
that when Trump was in office, they tried to get
him out of office using lawfare in ways, which was
just there was no justifiable legal reason for what they did. So,
as the boss says, let's see what happens. I hope
the federalist folks will cover my case as it moves
(41:36):
forward from the appeals court most likely to the Supreme Court.
And I went to prison, so you won't have to
hope you'll take a look at this book. It's a
great story about weaponized government, but also it's pretty funny
(41:56):
and humorous and if you want to know what it's
like to go to prison for a misdemeanor, And don't
forget the love story with my sweet Pixie, because she
did the time with me. That's the punchline there. That's
what these people don't understand. And by the way, Tomy,
the first thing he does when he gets indicted is
(42:17):
implicates his family. Okay, he didn't give a whatever about
Mike Flynn's family when he and trapped Mike Flynn and
cost him seven million dollars. And the FBI didn't care
about my fiance or family when they put me in
leg irons. So don't play that card, James, Just don't
(42:40):
play that card because it's just that dog won't hunt.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Okay, Yeah, that's that's the sad thing about all of this, really,
is that we talk about the people who have abused
the law in this country, they've been rewarded for it.
Peter Struck got a two million settlement in a rigged
system in the Biden court, the Biden administration, I should say,
(43:06):
he was rewarded for that, and so was his paramore
lease a page. And James Kobe has been rewarded and
what is he doing. He's setting up seashells on the beach, right, So.
Speaker 2 (43:17):
Sore, we have Brennan. It's like the whole CNN lineup
is the lineup for the Russias, I mean contributors. Is like,
you can't make that stuff up. And they're so pompous
and arrogant about it. That's what bothers me. That's what
ultimately bothers me. They're so there's so arrogant about about
(43:39):
just waging law fare on people who did nothing other
than to serve their country.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
And that's but Peter, why wouldn't they be why wouldn't
they be so smug They've gotten away with it for years.
The system is built and rigged to their benefits, not
to the benefit ultimately of the American people. So not
surprising at all, and this book really gets into all
(44:08):
of that. Thanks to my guest today, Peter Navarro, senior
Trump White House advisor, his new book, I Went to
Prison So You Won't have to a love and lawfare
story in trump Land. It's an insider's look at what
real political weaponization looks like. You've been listening to another
edition of The Federalist Radio Hour. I'm Matt Kittle, Senior
(44:28):
Elections correspondent at the Federalist. We'll be back soon with more.
Until then, stay lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray.
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