(WASHINGTON) — A jury has found former Trump adviser Peter Navarro guilty of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena issued in February 2022 by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Navarro, who under Donald Trump was director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, was convicted on one count over his refusal to appear for a deposition in front of the committee, and on a second count for refusing to produce documents.
He was indicted on contempt charges by a grand jury in June.
Prosecutors said during closing arguments Thursday that Navarro’s failure to submit documents and testify before the committee was intentional, while the defense argued that Navarro was “communicative” with the committee despite not testifying or submitting documents.
Navarro’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, said that Navarro told the committee that “his hands were tied” and claimed executive privilege.
During testimony Wednesday, David Buckley, a former staff director for the Jan. 6 committee, told jurors the committee had been seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, “In Trump Time.”
Woodward agreed with prosecutors that Navarro did not submit documents or show up for testimony — but, he said, the Jan. 6 committee failed to contact Trump to find out if he had asserted executive privilege over Navarro’s testimony and document production.
Prosecutors argued that Navarro still “had to show up to his deposition.”
“To cite the privilege, he had to do it on a question-by-question basis,” lead prosecutor John Crabb said. “That was made clear to Mr. Navarro. He didn’t show up.”
Navarro could face a maximum of two years in prison and fines up to $200,000.
(WASHINGTON) — Jury deliberations are underway Thursday in the trial of former Trump adviser Peter Navarro on charges of defying a subpoena issued in February 2022 by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack.
Navarro, who under Donald Trump was director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, is being tried on contempt of Congress charges after he was indicted by a grand jury in June.
Prosecutors argued during closing arguments that Navarro’s failure to submit documents and testify before the committee was intentional, while the defense argued that Navarro was “communicative” with the committee despite not testifying or submitting documents.
Navarro’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, said that Navarro told the committee that “his hands were tied” and claimed executive privilege.
During testimony Wednesday, David Buckley, a former staff director for the Jan. 6 committee, told jurors the committee had been seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, In Trump Time.
Woodward agreed with prosecutors that Navarro did not submit documents or show up for testimony — but, he said, the Jan. 6 committee failed to contact Trump to find out if he had asserted executive privilege over Navarro’s testimony and document production.
Prosecutors argued that Navarro still “had to show up to his deposition.”
“To cite the privilege, he had to do it on a question-by-question basis,” lead prosecutor John Crabb said. “That was made clear to Mr. Navarro. He didn’t show up.”
Navarro faces one count over his refusal to appear for a deposition in front of the committee, and another count for refusing to produce documents. If convicted on both counts, he could face a maximum of two years in prison and fines up to $200,000.
A verdict in the case could come as soon as Thursday afternoon.
(NEW YORK) — As a dangerous heat wave hits the nation, Phoenix is poised to break its record for most 110-degree days.
Phoenix has seen 52 days this year with a high temperature of at least 110 degrees. The city’s record is 53 days, which was set in 2020.
With highs forecast to be at least 110 degrees on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, Phoenix will most likely set a new record this weekend.
This year marked Phoenix’s hottest meteorological summer on record.
Earlier this summer, the city set a record stretch of 31 days in a row with temperatures above 110 degrees, smashing the old record of 18 days in a row from 1974.
Phoenix even saw its hottest ever overnight temperature of 97 degrees in July.
Phoenix is under an excessive heat warning from Saturday morning to Sunday night. Click here for tips to stay safe in the heat.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Lee, now churning over the Atlantic Ocean, is forecast to rapidly intensify to an extremely dangerous major hurricane.
Lee, which strengthened from a tropical storm to a hurricane on Wednesday, could become a major Category 3 hurricane by Friday and a high-end Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 155 mph by Saturday.
The storm is currently headed west, located east of the Leeward Islands.
Lee is expected to move north of the Caribbean Islands over the weekend, sparing the islands any direct impacts other than rough surf and rip currents.
By next week, the spaghetti models show the storm turning north before reaching Turks and Caicos. Bermuda may be in Lee’s path.
Long-range models can change over the next week, but they currently show Lee moving parallel to the eastern United States coastline. If Lee stays on that course, the East Coast wouldn’t see direct impacts, but would be hit with large surf and rip currents by late next week.
(ATLANTA) — Another inmate died at Atlanta’s notorious Fulton County Jail after being found unresponsive by a jail official, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said Wednesday.
The incident marks the 10th inmate death at the jail this year.
Shawndre Delmore, 24, was found unresponsive in his cell on Aug. 31 and was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital after jail staff attempted “lifesaving measures” to revive him, officials said. He died on Sunday at the hospital.
The Atlanta Police Department arrested Delmore in April for burglary in the second degree and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer, according to the sheriff’s office. He was being held on a $2,500 bond on the burglary charge, officials said.
The Fulton County Jail is where former President Donald Trump and 18 other defendants surrendered last month after being charged in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Georgia.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced in July that it launched a civil investigation into the Fulton County, Georgia, jail system following a series of reports of inmate abuse and neglect, including the Sept. 13, 2022, death of LaShawn Thompson, whose family claimed he was “eaten alive by insects and bed bugs” in the jail.
An independent autopsy report, which was obtained by ABC News, lists “dehydration, malnutrition, severe body insect infestation,” as well as “untreated decompensated schizophrenia,” as the conditions that led to Thompson’s death.
Several others have died in the jail this year.
Samuel Lawrence, 34, was found unresponsive in his cell on Aug. 26 during dinner rounds at the jail, authorities said. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead, officials said.
An Aug. 31 stabbing at the jail resulted in the death of one inmate, the sheriff’s office said in a previous press release.
Dayvion Blake, 23, died Thursday after he and three other inmates sustained stab wounds, the sheriff’s office said. They were all taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, authorities said.
Christopher Smith, 34, died inside the jail last month after waiting nearly four years for his trial to start. Another inmate in a mental health unit was found dead in October with his wrists and ankles tied, according to Atlanta ABC affiliate WSB-TV.
Others have died while incarcerated because they couldn’t afford bail.
Alexander Hawkins, 66, was pronounced dead last month after being found unresponsive in a medical unit cell while awaiting trial. He was being held on a $5,000 bond for a shoplifting charge.
(NEW YORK) — The New York Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigation has launched an inquiry into the death of two teens after an incident with an Onondaga County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) official early Wednesday morning, according to state officials.
A sheriff’s deputy responded to a report of “suspicious vehicles” at an intersection in DeWitt, New York, according to a press release from the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
Onondaga Sheriff Tobias Shelley said at a press conference on Wednesday that the vehicles were the same ones allegedly connected to two smoke shop burglaries in Oneida, New York, and there were three people inside each vehicle.
Once the deputy arrived on the scene and discovered the two vehicles, one of them fled, the attorney general’s office said.
The OCSO deputy fired his gun as the other vehicle drove away, according to the attorney general’s office. Shelley said the vehicle had attempted to run the deputy over.
The deputy was not injured during the incident, Shelley said.
That vehicle was later found in Syracuse, New York, after fleeing the area, with two people inside, the attorney general’s office said. One person was pronounced dead on the scene, while the other individual was sent to a local hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the New York State Attorney General’s Office.
The two people who died were teenagers, according to Shelley. He did not identify the teens nor provide their specific ages. The sheriff’s deputy was wearing a body camera but it wasn’t turned on, Shelley said, adding that the deputy did not have time to turn on the device. The person who called authorities about the suspicious vehicles took a video of the incident, according to Shelley.
The third person inside the vehicle hasn’t been found, as well as the three other people in the first vehicle that fled the scene, according to Shelley. An investigation into the incident is ongoing. Under New York state law, any death caused by a law enforcement official, whether on-duty or off-duty, must be investigated by the state’s office of special investigation.
(NEW YORK) — The grandmother of a pregnant 21-year-old, who was fatally shot by an Ohio police officer, spoke out Wednesday during a virtual press briefing following the release of the police body camera video of the incident.
Nadine Young said the body camera video of her granddaughter Ta’Kiya Young’s fatal shooting on Aug. 24, which was released by the Blendon Township Police Department on Friday, made her feel “real sick.”
“It was void of any humanity or any decency at all. He must be held accountable, full stop,” Nadine Young said.
Ta’Kiya Young, 21, of Columbus, was seven months pregnant when she was shot and killed, her family said. Her funeral will be held on Thursday.
Young was a potential shoplifting suspect when she was approached by police in a Kroger’s parking lot, according to police. Body camera video shows Young refusing to leave the car despite orders from officers and one officer was on the driver’s side while the other stood directly in front of the vehicle.
The video shows that as Young accelerated in an apparent attempt to drive away, the officer who stood in front of the vehicle fired the fatal shot.
The officer who shot Young is on paid administrative leave while the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation examines the shooting, which is standard practice.
Family attorney Sean Walton Jr. criticized the officer who fired the fatal shot during the press briefing and claimed that he escalated the situation by immediately pulling his gun out.
“Ta’Kiya was in fear of her life. Ta’Kiya was in fear for her baby’s life,” he said. “I can’t imagine that at the point when Ta’Kiya saw that gun come out that she was thinking about anything other than her baby.”
The officer also should not have placed himself in front of the vehicle, Walton said. But to avoid hitting him, Young moved the steering wheel away from him.
Video footage shows Young moving the steering wheel away from the officer.
“Blendon Township’s policy provides that a five-person use of force review board will evaluate and review the evidence to determine if the officer who fired the shot acted within policy. Because it would be irresponsible to make any decisions about what happened without knowing all of the facts, the administrative review won’t begin until BCI completes its investigation and shares its findings,” Police Chief John Belford told ABC News in a statement.
Steven Irwin, a press secretary for the Ohio Attorney General’s Office, told ABC News that BCI’s investigation into the incident remains “active and ongoing.”
Irwin told ABC News that the bureau “does not release the name of involved officer(s) in an officer-involved shooting investigation as they amount to uncharged suspects in the ongoing criminal investigation.”
Police officers were in a Kroger’s parking lot assisting a driver who was locked out of her car when a store employee told one of the officers that someone who had allegedly stolen bottles of alcohol was fleeing, Belford said in a statement after the shooting.
The body camera footage released last week shows Young parked in front of the store refusing to leave the vehicle despite repeated orders from police.
The video shows the officer on the driver’s side telling Young that she was accused of stealing, which she denies.
The officer again tells her to get out of the car, according to the video, which Young appears to verbally refuse to do.
In footage from the officer in front of the car, he pointed his gun at Young and yelled for her to exit the vehicle while using an expletive.
The car then accelerates forward, pushing against the officer in front of the car, who then fires a single shot through the windshield, according to the video. The car continued to move forward.
The officers announce “shots fired” as they chase the vehicle for several feet before it comes to a stop, video shows.
As they chase the car, one officer orders Young to stop the car while pointing a gun at her, according to the footage. The video then shows the officers smashing the driver’s side window.
Officers had to break the window to give Young medical assistance due to the door being locked, the police chief said.
Belford said Young later died at St. Ann’s hospital.
Ahead of Young’s funeral Thursday, her grandmother said “It’s going to tear us up.”
“I’ve been trying to be strong for everybody, but I know the closer it gets, it’s going get really bad tomorrow,” she added.
(NEW YORK) — An 11-year-old Wisconsin boy accused of murdering his mother has been ordered to stand trial.
The boy is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The district attorney’s office is seeking to try him as an adult. The court has ordered that the boy’s name not be revealed because he may still be tried as a child.
In July, the court found the boy competent, according to court records.
The court found “probable cause and bound defendant over for trial” denying the defense’s motion to dismiss the case, according to court records.
The boy is accused of killing his mother last November, when he was just 10 years old, according to court records.
Milwaukee Detective Timothy Keller testified in court on Tuesday about speaking with the boy about his mother’s death.
“Originally he informed me that he wasn’t sure what had occurred. That he had just found his mother in the basement, believed she was deceased,” Keller said in court, according to Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN-TV.
The detective said he questioned the boy the next day and the 10-year-old admitted shooting her but called it an accident, according to WISN.r
“[The boy] stated that he took up a shooting stance and was pointing the gun at her as she was walking towards him and asking him to put it down. And that’s when he indicated that he fired the gun with his intent to scare her by shooting the wall behind her,” Keller testified.
“He had made a purchase on his mother’s Amazon account for some virtual reality goggles the morning after this homicide occurred. And [family] were concerned because he had had an argument with her about whether he could have these prior to the homicide,” Keller said.
The boy pleaded not guilty and remains in custody, according to court records.
(NEW YORK) — A judge in New York on Wednesday said there would be no delay to the start of the civil trial in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ $250 million lawsuit against former President Donald Trump and his namesake real estate company.
Judge Arthur Engoron said that arguments Trump and others made to delay the case were not convincing.
“Defendants’ arguments are completely without merit,” Engoron wrote in his ruling.
The attorney general’s office alleges that Trump, his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and Trump Organization executives inflated his net worth by, in some years, billions of dollars so they could obtain better terms from lenders and insurers.
The former president called his real estate portfolio “the Mona Lisa of properties” during an April deposition in the suit, according to a transcript of the deposition that was made public last week.
(SAN BERNADINO, Calif.) — A California judge has issued a temporary restraining order on what Attorney General Rob Bonta calls Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education’s “forced outing policy.” The policy would require schools to inform parents if a student requests to use a name or pronoun different from the gender listed on their official records.
“The concern is how do we safeguard these students that identify as LGBTQ, and in my view, it’s a situation that is singling out a class of protected individuals differently than the rest of the students,” said Judge Thomas Garza in an oral ruling. He issued the restraining order out of an “abundance of caution.”
The ruling comes a week after Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a lawsuit to challenge the enforcement of the policy, which Bonta has said “infringes on several state protections safeguarding students’ civil and constitutional rights.”
“San Bernardino Superior Court’s decision to issue a temporary restraining order rightfully upholds the state rights of our LGBTQ+ student community and protects kids from harm by immediately halting the board’s forced outing policy,” said Bonta in a statement.
He continued, “While this fight is far from over, today’s ruling takes a significant step towards ensuring the physical, mental and emotional well-being of transgender and gender-nonconforming students. As we continue challenging the policy in court, my office will continue providing our unwavering support to ensure every student has the right to learn and thrive in a school environment that promotes safety, privacy and inclusivity.”
The Chino Valley Unified School District Board of Education, which serves about 26,000 students, recently adopted a mandatory gender identity disclosure policy that requires schools to tell parents if a student asks to use a name or pronoun that’s different from what is listed on their birth certificate or other official records.
The policy also requires parental notification if a student asks to use facilities or enter programs that don’t align with their sex as it is on official records.
A Chino Valley Unified School District (CVUSD) spokesperson told ABC News in a statement that “past and current practices of the district solidify staff’s priority to provide all students with a safe and positive educational experience.”
They argue “the Parent Notification policy does protect transgender students and takes their safety extremely seriously.”
The spokesperson said staff are required to notify child protective services or law enforcement if the student or staff member “believes the student is in danger or has been abused, injured or neglected due to their parent or guardian knowing of their preferred gender identity.”
“In these circumstances, CVUSD staff will not notify parents or guardians, but rather, wait for the appropriate agencies to complete their investigations regarding the concerns shared by the student,” the statement read.
ABC News has reached back out to the district for comment on the judge’s decision.
The Chino Valley school board held public hearings on the policy throughout the summer, garnering protesters from both sides of the issue. Board members also used anti-transgender rhetoric in their arguments in favor of the policy.
“There has always been man and woman, and then you have this transgender, and it is not going to stop there … it is a mental illness,” board clerk and member Andrew Cruz said. He also claimed, “women are being erased.”
In that same meeting, the board president, Sonja Shaw, also stated that transgender and gender nonbinary individuals needed “non-affirming” parents to “get better.”
The policy passed with a 4-1 vote, with member Donald L. Bridge as the sole vote against the policy.
LGBTQ advocates say that forcibly “outing” transgender students could be dangerous for some students, who may not feel safe or supported at home or elsewhere.
Transgender people make up 0.5% of the adult population in California, and 1.93% of teenagers between the ages of 13 and 17, according to research from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Transgender youth are more likely to experience anxiety, depressed moods, and suicidal thoughts and attempts due to gender-related discrimination and stigma, the National Alliance on Mental Illness has found.
Schools with inclusive policies that protect and affirm transgender youth’s identity are “associated with positive mental health and academic outcomes,” according to research published by the Society for Research in Child Development.
The lawsuit asserts the policy violates California’s Constitution and state anti-discrimination laws, including California’s Equal Protection Clause, California’s Education and Government Code and California’s Constitutional Right to Privacy.
Bonta has also condemned several other school districts across the state that have implemented similar gender identity disclosure policies.
The hearing on the attorney general’s motion for a preliminary injunction is scheduled for Oct. 13, 2023.
