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DC Circuit upholds Navarro’s conviction, finding Trump never formally invoked executive privilege.
Federal Appeals Court Rejects Trump Advisor Navarro’s Appeal of Jan. 6 Contempt Conviction
A federal appeals court in Washington ruled on July 21 against White House trade advisor Peter Navarro, upholding his criminal conviction for contempt of Congress.
A federal jury convicted Navarro in 2023 on two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena.
Navarro was indicted in 2022 for not honoring the subpoena from the Jan. 6 Select Committee that existed when Democrats controlled the U.S. House of Representatives. He entered not guilty pleas to the charges.
One count covered Navarro’s failure to produce documents the Select Committee requested; the other related to his failure to appear to provide testimony at a deposition. After sentencing, he served four months in prison.
Hours after his release, he spoke at the 2024 Republican National Convention, telling the audience, “I went to prison so you won’t have to.”
The new, unanimous ruling was issued by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. Circuit Judge Patricia Millett authored the opinion.
The panel noted that in 2021, Navarro published a book about his time in politics. He took credit for coming up with a plan to “leverage” then-Vice President Mike Pence’s powers under the Electoral Count Act of 1887 to “delay certification” of the official results for the presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021. The certification process was delayed that day for several hours by a security breach at the U.S. Capitol.
His statements were noticed by the Select Committee, which served Navarro with a subpoena that sought documents related to his book and public comments, and directed him to show up for a deposition. Navarro declined to appear or comply with the committee’s requests and pleaded executive privilege as a former advisor to a president. After the compliance deadline went by, the House of Representatives held him in contempt and a grand jury indicted him, the panel’s written opinion said.
Navarro moved to dismiss the indictment, arguing that President Donald Trump, had invoked executive privilege. The district court held an evidentiary hearing and found that executive privilege had not been invoked and declined to throw out the indictment. The court also granted the government’s motion to block Navarro from telling the jury that he mistakenly believed he did not have to reply to the committee’s subpoena. The jury found him guilty on both counts.
The panel said it was affirming because executive privilege is a prerogative that belongs to the president, not his aides, and besides, it was not actually invoked by the president.
The panel said Navarro’s decision not to comply went beyond any possible claim of privilege. He should have appeared, at which point he could have asserted specific privileges regarding individual questions, and could have produced non-privileged materials.
Moreover, Navarro “has acknowledged that even if executive privilege had been invoked, that would not have excused his categorical failure to comply with the Select Committee’s subpoena,” the panel said.
The U.S. Department of Justice did not participate in the appeal. Navarro’s team alone argued against the conviction.
Navarro’s attorney, Abhishek Kambli, said his client intends to appeal the latest ruling, which the lawyer described as “one step in a battle to correct decades of incorrect [D.C. Circuit] precedent.”
“He intends to move swiftly with his appeal because his case affects every senior presidential advisor, regardless of political party, who believes in good faith they cannot comply with a congressional subpoena based on executive privilege,” Kambli said.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/federal-appeals-court-rejects-trump-advisor-navarros-appeal-of-jan-6-contempt-conviction-6065166
The governor’s executive order targets schemes that entice illegal immigrants to cross the border into Texas to give birth.
Texas Gov. Abbott Orders State Agencies to Investigate Illegal Birth Tourism Schemes
Gov. Greg Abbott on July 21 ordered Texas state agencies to start investigating and eliminating illegal birth tourism schemes and hold accountable any licensed healthcare providers that participate in them.
The governor signed an executive order targeting the schemes that entice illegal immigrants to cross the border into Texas to deliver babies who are then granted U.S. citizenship.
“Texas will not tolerate the exploitation of our immigration laws by individuals traveling to the United States illegally or under false pretenses to give birth and secure citizenship for their child,” Abbott said in a statement. “U.S. citizenship is not for sale, and Texas will put a stop to individuals seeking to profit from birth tourism.”
Texas has ramped up efforts to rid the state of the birthright citizenship industry following the Supreme Court’s decision last month striking down President Donald Trump’s executive order excluding children of illegal immigrants and legal temporary visitors from automatic birthright citizenship.
Trump said he would ask the justices to rehear the case. In the meantime, the president said signs and billboards were appearing “all over our southern border, and Mexico” selling deliveries starting at $4,000.
Abbott’s order directs the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the Department of State Health Services, and other state agencies to investigate claims of birth tourism within the state’s healthcare industry.
Under the executive order, the agencies must take enforcement action against any licensed or regulated person or entity who advertises, solicits, engages in, assists with, provides, or participates in illegal birth tourism schemes.
Consequences for engaging in the schemes include medical and nursing board license suspensions or revocations; the loss of state contracts and administrative sanctions; and civil lawsuits against the operators for coaching foreign nationals to deceive federal immigration officials.
Within hours of the Supreme Court decision, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a memo directing all U.S. Attorneys and the criminal division to work with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to prioritize the investigation and prosecution of birth tourism schemes.
Deputy Attorney General Colin McDonald said in the memo that the American system of birth tourism is exploited each year by thousands of foreigners who travel to the United States under false pretenses to give birth.
Federal law prohibits birth tourism schemes, as many foreigners enter with a false visa application stating a dishonest reason for why they are entering the country, according to McDonald.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office has taken steps to combat illegal birth tourism in the state, including suing a Houston-area facility that claims to have helped 1,000 or more foreign nationals and coached customers on how to enter the United States illegally to give birth, according to Abbott.
The governor has already directed the Texas Health and Human Services Commission this month to launch an investigation into reports that Texas hospitals were advertising birth tourism packages abroad, he said.
In another case, two Texas medical centers allegedly posted billboard ads in a foreign country advertising “birth packages” in the southern region of the state for prices as low as $3,950.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/texas-gov-abbott-orders-state-agencies-to-investigate-illegal-birth-tourism-schemes-6065365
A software error resulted in roughly 6,600 people who indicated they were not U.S. citizens being registered to vote in New Jersey.
Thousands of Noncitizens Registered to Vote in New Jersey, Governor Says
New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill said a software error in the state’s Motor Vehicle Commission system resulted in roughly 6,600 people who indicated that they were not U.S. citizens being registered to vote between June 2023 and June 2024.
Sherrill said in a statement that the individuals answered “no” when asked on a keypad whether they were U.S. citizens while applying for driver’s licenses or identification cards, but they were registered because of a software error.
According to the governor, a preliminary analysis found that fewer than 400 individuals who were newly registered because of the error voted. She said those voters were registered as Democrats, Republicans, and unaffiliated voters and were located throughout the state.
The governor said the issue occurred under the previous administration. She said she has directed her chief counsel to investigate what happened and ordered election officials to remove any residents who were erroneously added to the voter rolls during that period.
In a press conference, the governor said the error was fixed in June 2024, but she learned about it recently.
Sherrill also said the Motor Vehicle Commission administrator she appointed has begun replacing the vendor responsible for administering the system.
Sherrill said she was “appalled” by what she described as failures that allowed the error to occur and said those responsible would be held accountable.
She also accused the Trump administration of attempting to “weaponize elections for political gain.”
The White House stated in an email to The Epoch Times that the New Jersey error highlights the need to pass the SAVE America Act, which Republicans say is necessary to ensure election integrity.
“Democrats and their media allies have repeatedly said it is impossible for noncitizens to register to vote, let alone cast a ballot. Time and again, they have been proven wrong,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said.
“As President [Donald] Trump has said, there is nothing more important than the integrity of our elections. And this latest incident underscores the absolute necessity of the SAVE America Act. American voters deserve to have confidence that our elections are safe and secure—President Donald Trump will never stop fighting to make that happen, and all patriotic Americans should join in his effort.”
The governor said the state would continue taking steps to ensure that only eligible citizens vote and that lawful votes are counted.
New Jersey Assembly Minority Leader John DiMaio, a Republican, said he wants election security reforms, including requiring voter ID, and a full audit of New Jersey voter rolls.
“New Jersey Republicans have been sounding the alarm for years that the automatic voter registration process at the MVC [Motor Vehicle Commission] was highly problematic,” DiMaio said in a statement. “In 2020 and again in 2025, voters were disenfranchised after the system changed party affiliations. When we questioned MVC officials, they refused to disclose how they safeguard the process. Trenton Democrats have continued to undermine public trust in our elections, and it’s time for change.”
https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/nj-governor-says-thousands-of-noncitizens-registered-to-vote-due-to-software-error-6065168
Michigan Matters
Susan Kokinda discusses the American [Economic] Revolution and the American System.
Premiered Jul 18, 2026 25:51
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e_M6j_N9wi0
Senator John Kennedy
Kennedy questions Gen. Caine, Sec. Hegseth and Sec. Rollins on Strait of Hormuz tolls
5 hours ago 6:07
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SenChuckGrassley
Grassley Blasts Rise of Socialism in Democrat Primaries Across the Country
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDjxHNFSins
Andy Biggs wins Republican nomination to challenge Democrat Katie Hobbs for Arizona governor
PHOENIX (AP) — U.S. Rep. Andy Biggs, a fierce ally of President Donald Trump and former head of the House Freedom Caucus, won the Republican nomination for Arizona governor Tuesday.
Biggs defeated fellow U.S. Rep. David Schweikert in the primary and will face Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs in what is likely to be one of the closest gubernatorial races in November.
Biggs built a national profile as chair of the House Freedom Caucus from 2019 to 2022 and as a staunch defender of Trump. He assisted the president’s attempt to block the certification of his loss in the 2020 election, voting against accepting Electoral College votes from Arizona and other battleground states after the Jan. 6 riot. …
https://apnews.com/article/arizona-primary-election-biggs-schweikert-hobbs-6ecadbc05dc0704285d1f9fbfc3af0cb
Sofia Karstens - Jul 20, 2026
The CIA’s Own Document Contradicts the CIA
The CIA knew more than it’s saying, and now there’s a federal indictment to go with it
In June 2026, the CIA declassified a five-page summary of intelligence reporting on Venezuela’s electronic voting manipulation capabilities, spanning 2004 to 2020. The document is heavily redacted. What survived redaction is still enough to raise questions the document itself doesn’t answer: if this much was worth declassifying, what’s still being withheld? And why does the agency’s document undermine its own baseline finding?
First, a 2006 National Security Council threat assessment evaluated Smartmatic’s acquisition of the U.S. voting systems company Sequoia as a “moderate overall threat to US national security interests.” The assessment rested on two pillars: intelligence indicating Venezuelan government intent to influence U.S. politics, and documented evidence that Venezuela had manipulated its own electoral systems. That finding led directly to pressure from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, which forced Smartmatic to divest Sequoia by 2007.
Additionally, intelligence reporting from April 2004 indicated Hugo Chávez stated his objective was to prevent the reelection of a sitting U.S. president – language the document says the IC treated as evidence of intent to influence U.S. domestic politics, not merely Venezuelan politics.
Lastly, prior to Venezuela’s 2012 presidential election, intelligence reporting described Chávez’s intelligence services – military counterintelligence and the Bolivarian Intelligence Service – as working with the National Electoral Council and Smartmatic to develop a specific manipulation plan: deploying altered machines to roughly 300 voting centers in pro-Chávez strongholds to secure a margin of about 1.5 million votes. Sources reportedly said Chávez congratulated his team afterward for “successfully implementing” it. Separately, September 2020 reporting on Venezuela’s National Assembly election described a technical method: creating a second, parallel set of “virtual machines” that would replicate legitimate vote data while substituting manipulated results, engineered specifically to survive standard audit procedures.
That is a documented election-manipulation plan, and a documented manipulation method, from the same company whose voting systems now run some of the largest election jurisdictions in the United States.
The baseline assessment problem makes the document even harder to take at face value. Despite reporting a detailed 2012 manipulation plan, the CIA’s stated baseline assessment – repeated twice in five pages – “maintained that large-scale electronic fraud did not occur.” The stated reasoning: pre-election polling had Chávez ahead by roughly 10 points, government spending rose 24 percent before the vote, the opposition conceded, and CIA’s own quantitative analysis found no irregular voting patterns.
Notice what ISN’T doing the work in that reasoning: none of it is forensic examination of the machines or the vote data themselves. It’s circumstantial; polling, spending, concession. A candidate can win comfortably by legitimate means and have intelligence services simultaneously execute a manipulation plan for a smaller margin; the document offers no forensic finding that rules out the latter, only inference that it wasn’t necessary. The document’s own 2013 “Devil’s Advocacy” analysis – an internal exercise built specifically to stress-test the baseline conclusion – acknowledged “conflicting” reporting and “limited insight into key elements of the electronic voting system”.
That same company now holds dominion (no pun intended) over the largest U.S. election jurisdiction. In June 2018, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously awarded Smartmatic USA a contract, capped at $282,097,321, to build LA County’s new “Voting Solutions for All People” (VSAP) ballot-marking system – the same Smartmatic named throughout the CIA’s Venezuela reporting. VSAP was certified and deployed in time for the 2020 presidential election, and Smartmatic has continued servicing it through 2024, by the company’s own account. LA County is the largest single election jurisdiction in the United States.
Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of Florida have since indicted Smartmatic and its parent company, SGO, along with three former executives – including co-founder Roger Piñate Martinez – on bribery and money-laundering charges. Filings allege the company overbilled LA County on the $282 million contract and diverted the surplus into a “slush fund,” the same mechanism prosecutors say Smartmatic used to bribe an election official in a Philippines contract dispute. LA County’s own top elections official, Dean Logan, has acknowledged regularly meeting with Piñate during this period.
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https://sofiakarstens.substack.com/p/the-cias-own-document-contradicts
@GenFlynn
This is a really big deal!
@CIADirector any comment?
@SofiaJLondon 12h
>The CIA’s Own Document Contradicts the CIA
1:54 AM · Jul 22, 2026 28.4KViews
https://x.com/GenFlynn/status/2079746938543423744
>TRUTH
The investigation was supported by Joint Task Force Alpha, whose activities have so far resulted in the conviction of more than 419 smugglers and traffickers.
Mexicans Plead Guilty to International Conspiracy to Smuggle Illegal Immigrants From Canada Into US
Three Mexican illegal immigrants pleaded guilty on Monday to unlawfully bringing foreign nationals from Mexico, Central America, and South America into the United States through America’s northern border with Canada.
The individuals, Ignacio Diaz-Perez, 37, Samuel Diaz-Perez, 27, and Salvador Diaz-Diaz, 34, are part of an international alien smuggling organization that brought hundreds of illegal immigrants into the country, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a July 20 statement.
Once the foreigners crossed the border, the organization hired drivers to pick these people up and transport them deeper into the country. The defendants in the case took part in and coordinated the smuggling activities with other organization leaders.
The three individuals pleaded to multiple counts of smuggling illegal immigrants for financial gain and one count each of conspiracy to commit illegal immigrant smuggling. If convicted, they face a minimum prison term of five years, which can go up to a maximum of 15 years. Their sentencing is due on Nov. 23.
The Justice Department highlighted a smuggling incident involving the defendants from May 2023.
At the time, Border Patrol agents had to engage in a high-speed chase targeting a van carrying multiple illegal immigrants. However, the agents had to stop the pursuit due to risks it posed to the public. Local authorities then used a tire deflation device to stop the van.
“Human smuggling threatens our national security in multiple ways, including the risks to public safety that take place when alien smugglers further ignore our laws and lead agents on dangerous high-speed pursuits,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said in the statement.
“These defendants undermined the integrity of our border, disobeyed our traffic and public safety laws, and put ordinary citizens at risk. In short, for their own greed, they jeopardized the safety of the public and the illegal aliens they were smuggling. They will now answer for these offenses.”
According to the DOJ, the investigation is being supported by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA) launched during the Biden administration to stop human smuggling.
JTFA initially focused on combating human smuggling and trafficking in Central America. In September last year, the DOJ announced that JTFA was expanded to districts along the northern and maritime borders to further dismantle transnational criminal organizations and cartels.
In its latest statement, the DOJ said that JTFA’s work has, to date, led to the arrests of more than 465 domestic and international leaders, facilitators, and organizers of human smuggling and trafficking. More than 419 individuals have been convicted and over 363 significant jail sentences have been imposed.
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https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/mexicans-plead-guilty-to-international-conspiracy-to-smuggle-illegal-immigrants-from-canada-into-us-6065469