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(WASHINGTON) — A jury has been selected in the trial of former Trump adviser Peter Navarro on charges that he defied a subpoena for testimony and documents issued in February 2022 by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

Fourteen jurors were seated Tuesday, including two alternates.

The House of Representatives voted in April 2022 to hold Navarro in contempt of Congress. The matter was then referred to the Justice Department, and two months later Navarro was indicted by a grand jury on contempt of Congress charges.

According to the indictment, 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.

For several hours Tuesday, Judge Amit Mehta pressed potential jurors about their knowledge of the Jan. 6 attack and the House select committee’s investigation, as well as their knowledge about Navarro.

Dozens of jurors were stricken from the jury pool including a woman who said she recognized Mehta because he sentenced her fiancé to 13 years in prison when he oversaw that case.

“That’s a first,” Mehta said.

Three other jurors were stricken from the jury pool for serving together on a Jan 6. defendant’s trial last week.

Another potential juror was dismissed after he called Navarro’s trade policies during the Trump administration “out of the norm.”

Navarro has pleaded not guilty to both charges against him. If convicted on both counts, he could face a maximum of two years in prison and fines up to $200,000, according to the Justice Department.

Court will resume Wednesday morning.

Last week, Judge Mehta ruled that Navarro cannot argue to a jury that then-President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege to block him from testifying before Congress. Mehta said that Navarro’s claim that he spoke to Trump last year at which time “Trump clearly invoked executive privilege” provided no specific evidence that Trump had indeed done so.

“There was no formal invocation of executive privilege by [Trump] after personal consideration nor authorization to Mr. Navarro to invoke privilege on his behalf,” Mehta said.

After the pre-trial hearing, Navarro doubled down on his claim that Trump formally granted him executive privilege.

“It’s been the case where people like me, senior advisers, the president … cannot be compelled to testify,” Navarro said to reporters last week. “There is not a single White House adviser who hasn’t asserted executive privilege.”

Navarro, who was the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in the Trump White House, wrote a series of reports in the weeks following the 2020 presidential election claiming that the election was stolen from Trump.

He was also in contact with Trump ally Steve Bannon about an effort to delay Congress’ certification of the election and overturn the results, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, “In Trump Time,” the Jan. 6 committee wrote in its report.

Bannon also defied a House select committee subpoena and was subsequently convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year.

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(MADISON, Wisc.) — Police are urging people to send in surveillance footage after a University of Wisconsin-Madison student was found beaten off-campus over the weekend in a “horrific” attack.

The woman was found around 3:20 a.m. Sunday on a block in downtown Madison, police said. A person who lives in the area called police after finding the victim “severely beaten,” the Madison Police Department said. The victim was physically and sexually assaulted, according to police.

No arrests have been announced in the attack, which police said appeared to involve a stranger.

The department is calling for anyone who lives within four blocks of the area where the incident occurred — in particular those who may have been away over the holiday weekend — to submit all surveillance footage, including from vehicles such as Teslas.

“Detectives and investigators over the weekend gathered physical, digital and biological evidence. We are still in need of any surveillance video from this area,” Madison police said in an update Tuesday.

The victim, who is in her 20s, was transported in critical condition to a local hospital, police said. She is expected to survive her injuries, police said Tuesday.

Police said they are making “significant progress” in the case, calling it a “top priority.”

“I have authorized a full complement of police resources to bring this person or persons to justice,” Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said during a press briefing Sunday.

Police continued to urge people to be on “high alert” in the area. Patrols in the area have been increased in the wake of the attack, police said.

“It was just kind of terrifying because I was like, that kind of could’ve been me,” Wisconsin student Azza Bayoudh told Milwaukee ABC affiliate WISN. “So that’s what scared me. So we have our doors locked now and we hope they catch whoever it was.”

Madison police said they are working with university leadership amid the investigation.

“We are deeply concerned for this individual, keeping them and their family in our thoughts and providing all possible support,” UW-Madison Dean of Students Christina Olstad and UW Police Chief Kristen Roman said in an alert to the school community regarding the “violent and severe attack.”

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(TOMS RIVER, N.J.) — A high-risk warning for dangerous riptides remained in effect Tuesday for the Jersey Shore after a series of drownings and rescues occurred at beaches over the Labor Day weekend, officials said.

The National Weather Service warning will stay in effect through Tuesday evening and swimmers are being advised to be alert for the dangerous rip currents being churned up by the remnants of hurricanes Franklin and Idalia, officials said.

Three swimmers died from drownings over the holiday weekend on the Jersey Shore and many others had to be rescued by lifeguards, officials said.

A 22-year-old man, identified as Edwin Antonio Made Sanchez of the Dominican Republic, died on Sunday at Beach Haven in Ocean County after being hit by a rough wave, officials said. His death occurred despite a team effort to save him by lifeguards and beachgoers who formed a human chain to pull him from the water. Two other swimmers at Beach Haven were rescued by lifeguards, officials said.

In Belmar, New Jersey, in Monmouth County, about 50 miles north of Beach Haven, five swimmers were rescued Sunday from the rough surf off Fifth Avenue Beach, officials said. One of those pulled from the water alive, a 24-year-old man whose name was not released, was later pronounced dead at a hospital, officials said.

A rip current, which flows out toward the ocean, can quickly pull a swimmer away from the shore. Rip currents usually reach a speed of 1 to 2 feet per second, but some can clock in at 8 feet per second, which is faster than an Olympic swimmer, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The best way to survive a rip current is to not panic or attempt to swim directly toward shore but rather swim parallel to shore or tread water until one is naturally pulled out of the rip current, according to the Red Cross.

Surfer Stephen Houser, a former U.S. Marine, sprang into action to rescue one man he saw struggling in the water off Long Beach Island in Ocean County on Sunday. Houser said he raced out on a boogie board to save Gabe McCabe. Houser videotaped the rescue and later posted it on YouTube.

McCabe told ABC New York station WABC that he felt helpless against the strong current, saying, “I kept being pulled down and down and down.”

“I’ve never experienced anything like this. It just sucked, zapped the energy right out of you,” McCabe said. “Steve definitely was the man of the moment for me.”

Houser said he has saved swimmers in the past, but described Sunday’s rip currents off Long Beach Island were especially strong.

“I’ve been in rip currents before, too,” Houser said. “It’s scary. Your first instinct is panic.”

Also on Sunday, six swimmers were rescued off Seaside Park in Ocean County when lifeguards spotted them struggling in the swift currents, officials said. A search continued Tuesday at Seaside Park for a 31-year-old swimmer believed to have been dragged out by a riptide, officials said.

The body of another 31-year-old swimmer, identified as Richard Boateng, who went missing in the water off Rehoboth Beach in Maryland around 5:45 p.m. on Sunday, was recovered on Monday when his remains washed up to shore in North Shores Beach, just north of Rehoboth Beach, according to a statement from the Rehoboth Beach Police Department.

Two other Labor Day weekend rescues occurred in Strathmere, in Cape May County, New Jersey, where a teenage girl and her father were rescued by lifeguards around noon on Sunday. Upper Township Beach Patrol Chief Bill Handley said the father and daughter were swimming in an area unprotected by lifeguards.

“It’s about a mile down from where our lifeguards were,” Handley said. “We ran a chain of getting guards into vehicles to get them on the scene.”

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(NEW YORK) — New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday asked a judge to impose legal sanctions against Donald Trump and the other defendants in her $250 million civil lawsuit against the former president and his company.

James last year brought the $250 million lawsuit against Trump, his children and his company that accuses them of “grossly” inflating the former president’s net worth by billions of dollars and cheating lenders and others with false and misleading financial statements.

In her new court filing, James argues that Trump and the others deserve sanctions because they’ve made the same legal arguments the judge has repeatedly denied.

Since October 2022, the defendants have made the same arguments against the suit five separate times, the filing says. Three of those arguments have already been rejected by the courts, while two were filed in the past month and haven’t been ruled on yet, according to the filing.

On Oct. 26, the court rejected the defendants’ motion that the DA didn’t have standing or capacity to bring the claims, the filing said. On Jan. 6, 2023, the court rejected the same arguments for a second time in the defendants’ motion to dismiss the case, according to the filing. Then on June 27, the court rejected the same arguments in the defendants’ appeal, the filing said.

The defendants then made the same arguments in filing for a summary judgment on Aug. 4 and in their opposition to the AG’s partial motion for a summary judgment filed on Sept. 1, the filing said. Neither of those motions have been ruled on yet.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing.

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(NEW YORK) — United Airlines flights resumed Tuesday afternoon following a brief nationwide ground stop due to a computer issue, the airline said.

United said in a statement that “a software update caused a widespread slowdown in United’s technology systems.”

The issue prompted planes on the ground to be held while flights in the air continued on their routes as planned, the airline said.

About one hour later, United said the issue was resolved and the ground stop was lifted.

The ground stop delayed 211 flights nationwide.

“Our teams are working to get customers to their destinations as soon as possible,” United said.

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(ATLANTA) — Former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is among six more defendants who have pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in the Georgia election interference case and waived their in-person arraignment set for Wednesday, according to court filings.

Meadows, as well as attorney John Eastman, ex-DOJ official Jeffrey Clark, and Cathy Latham, Shawn Still and David Shafer all filed documents Tuesday pleading not guilty.

All but one of the 19 defendants, including former President Donald Trump, have now pleaded not guilty in the case and waived their in-person arraignment. Only former Coffee County elections director Misty Hampton still has to enter a plea.

Trump and the 18 others were charged last month in a sweeping racketeering indictment for alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in the state of Georgia.

The former president says his actions were not illegal and that the investigation is politically motivated.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee last week set the date of Sept. 6 for all 19 defendants to be arraigned on charges and enter their pleas in the case.

Clark, who is one of the five defendants seeking to move their case from state court into federal court, pushed back on the case in a lengthier filing by his attorney, calling it an “unconstitutional attempt, as to Mr. Clark, to penetrate into the sanctums of the superior federal government’s Justice Department, as well as of the Office of the President of the United States at the White House.”

“The Indictment is also an unconstitutional affront to the powers of the President, who is the sole head of the unitary executive branch,” Clark’s filing states.

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(NEW YORK) — A dangerous heat wave is hitting the eastern United States.

On Monday, several cities broke records for the all-time hottest Labor Day ever, including Minneapolis at 98 degrees and Atlantic City, New Jersey, at 94 degrees.

On Tuesday, the heat will stretch from Minnesota to Texas to Massachusetts.

Temperatures could reach a scorching 99 degrees in Washington, D.C.; 91 degrees in New York City; 97 in Raleigh, North Carolina; 93 in Minneapolis; 91 in Chicago; 100 in Oklahoma City; and 102 in Dallas and San Antonio.

In Pittsburgh, many schools have shifted to remote learning due to the heat.

In Washington, D.C., the mayor has activated a heat emergency.

The heat will end over the next few days in the Midwest and the Great Lakes, but it’ll remain in the South and the Northeast. In New York City, temperatures could reach 90 degrees three days in a row, marking the first heat wave of the season for the city.

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(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro will go to trial Tuesday on criminal charges that he defied a subpoena for testimony and documents issued in February 2022 by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

The House of Representatives voted in April 2022 to hold Navarro in contempt of Congress. The matter was then referred to the Justice Department, and two months later Navarro was indicted by a grand jury on contempt of Congress charges.

According to the indictment, 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.

Navarro has pleaded not guilty to both charges. If convicted on both counts, he could face a maximum of two years in prison and fines up to $200,000, according to the Justice Department.

Last week, Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Navarro cannot argue to a jury that then-President Donald Trump asserted executive privilege to block him from testifying before Congress. Mehta said that Navarro’s claim that he spoke to Trump last year at which time “Trump clearly invoked executive privilege” provided no specific evidence that Trump had indeed done so.

“There was no formal invocation of executive privilege by [Trump] after personal consideration nor authorization to Mr. Navarro to invoke privilege on his behalf,” Mehta said.

After the pre-trial hearing, Navarro doubled down on his claim that Trump formally granted him executive privilege.

“It’s been the case where people like me, senior advisers, the president … cannot be compelled to testify,” Navarro said to reporters last week. “There is not a single White House adviser who hasn’t asserted executive privilege.”

Navarro, who was the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy in the Trump White House, wrote a series of reports in the weeks following the 2020 presidential election claiming that the election was stolen from Trump.

He was also in contact with Trump ally Steve Bannon about an effort to delay Congress’ certification of the election and overturn the results, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, In Trump Time, the Jan. 6 committee wrote in its report.

Bannon also defied a House select committee subpoena and was subsequently convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year.

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(NEW YORK) — The mother of an escaped killer on the loose in Pennsylvania is now helping authorities in the search for her son, as officials said they believe they are closing in on the “dangerous fugitive” after four credible sightings were reported over the Labor Day weekend, including one by a state trooper.

Danelo Cavalcante remained at large Monday afternoon and police suspect he is hiding out in a residential neighborhood in Pocopson Township, Pennsylvania, near the prison he escaped from last week, officials said.

Lt. Col. George Bevins, deputy commissioner of operations for the Pennsylvania State Police, said at a news conference Monday afternoon that 34-year-old Cavalcante was spotted Sunday afternoon from a distance by a state trooper, who gave chase but lost him. Bevins said it was the fourth credible sighting of Cavalcante in Pocopson Township since his escape from the Chester County Prison.

Bevins said the trooper spotted Cavalcante in the same general area where the fugitive was recorded on a Ring doorbell camera early Saturday lurking in a residential neighborhood about 1.5 miles from the Chester County Prison.

“He is desperate. He does not want to be caught. He has very little to lose at this time,” Bevins said of Cavalcante, who officials said is also wanted in his native Brazil on homicide charges.

He said search efforts are intensifying with more resources being deployed in hopes of pressuring Cavalcante to the point he gives up or makes a mistake.

“I intend to stress him. I want to push him hard. He’ll make mistakes. He’ll show himself. He’s already shown himself, we believe, a few times,” Bevins said.

Bevins said investigators got Cavalcante’s mother to record a message asking her son to surrender peacefully. He said the message was being broadcast from police helicopters and vehicles in the search area.

He said the message from Cavalcante’s mother, who is from Brazil, is recorded in her native language of Portuguese.

Cavalcante’s escape came about a week after he was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering his ex-girlfriend, 38-year-old Deborah Brandao, who prosecutors said was stabbed 38 times in front of her two young children, ages 4 and 7, at a home in Schuylkill Township. A Chester County jury convicted Cavalcante after just 15 minutes of deliberations.

Prosecutors said Brandao was killed after she learned Cavalcante was wanted for murder in Brazil and threatened to expose him to police.

Following Brandao’s murder, Cavalcante fled to Virginia, where he was arrested and brought back to Pennsylvania to face justice for Brandao’s killing.

Cavalcante escaped from the Chester County Prison on Thursday. He was discovered missing from the prison around 8:50 a.m. He was being held there pending transfer to a state correctional institution.

The escape remains under investigation by the Chester County District Attorney’s Office and the state police.

Citing the ongoing investigation, Chester County District Attorney Deb Ryan declined to provide details Monday on the circumstances of the breakout.

“The prison is very aware of the vulnerabilities that they have and they have made efforts to correct those vulnerabilities,” Ryan said.

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro issued a statement on social media Monday advising residents of Pocopson Township to remain vigilant, keep their doors and windows locked and report anything suspicious to authorities immediately.

Bevins said police have investigated two home burglaries reported in the area since the escape, adding, “I can’t confirm it was him, but they are of interest to us.”

Ryan said authorities plan to brief local school superintendents Monday afternoon on the search. She said it will be up to the school superintendents to decide whether to cancel classes on Tuesday.

It was the second time in less than two months that a dangerous inmate had escaped from a Pennsylvania prison. Inmate Michael Burham, who is a suspect in the rape and murder of a 34-year-old woman in Jamestown, New York, escaped from the Warren County Jail in northern Pennsylvania on July 6.

Burham, an Army reserve sergeant who authorities said was a “self-taught survivalist,” was captured on July 15 following a massive manhunt in the northern Pennsylvania woods.

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(PERSHING COUNTY, Nev.) — A death was confirmed at the Burning Man festival over the weekend after thousands of attendees were left mired in mud from torrential rains and were advised to conserve food and water, as all roads in and out of the desert arts and “self-reliance” festival remained shut off Sunday.

The sprawling event is held each year in what’s known as Black Rock City (BRC), in the Black Rock Desert in northwestern Nevada. Following what authorities described as “unusual weather conditions” that produced heavy rains Friday night and into Saturday, the gate and airport into and out of Black Rock City remain closed, organizers said. No driving is permitted at the site except for emergency vehicles.

One person died at the festival, the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a statement Sunday morning.

“The Pershing County Sheriff’s Office is currently investigating a death which occurred during this rain event. The family has been notified and the death is under investigation. As this death is still under investigation, there is no further information available at this time,” according to the sheriff’s office.

On Monday, authorities confirmed the deceased had been identified as Leon Reece, 32.

Pershing County Sheriff’s Office deputies performed a preliminary investigation, and interviewed witnesses at the scene and medical responders. Reece’s remains were sent to Washoe County Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy. The results of the autopsy are pending toxicology results.

Reece’s death is still being investigated, authorities said Monday.

News of the death came a day after organizers issued an alarming statement to festival attendees.

“If you are in BRC, conserve food, water and fuel, and shelter in a warm, safe space,” organizers said in a statement posted on X, (formally known as Twitter).

President Joe Biden was briefed on the flooding that has stranded thousands of Burning Man attendees, a White House official said Sunday.

“Administration officials are monitoring the situation and are in touch with state and local officials,” the official added. “Event attendees should listen to state and local officials, and event organizers.”

An estimated 75,000 people attended the annual gathering in 2022, and organizers said they expected as many this year. The festival began on Aug. 28 and is scheduled to run through Tuesday.

Organizers started urging attendees to shelter in place and secure their camps late Friday, as adverse weather conditions moved through the area.

Photos from Burning Man on Saturday showed muddy and wet conditions at Black Rock City and abandoned vehicles in intersections.

Among those who attended this year’s event were Diplo and Chris Rock, who both reportedly fled on foot. The DJ said on X Saturday that he and the comedian walked five miles in the mud to get out of Burning Man before they were picked up by a fan.

Access to Black Rock City will remain closed for the remainder of the event, organizers said, while urging people not to travel to the site.

The Bureau of Land Management and the Pershing County Sheriff’s Office decided to close the entrance to Burning Man for the remainder of the event due to the rainfall, Pershing County Sheriff Jerry Allen said in a statement Saturday evening.

Allen said in a statement that the several hours of heavy rain “made it virtually impossible for motorized vehicles to traverse.”

The sheriff said some vehicles have “caused damage to the Playa surface.”

On Sunday night, festival organizers said the roads were expected to open Monday for attendees to leave the area, and they did, a little after 3 p.m. local time.

Significant flooding has been occurring in Las Vegas and surrounding areas as monsoonal rains and storms inundate the Southwest.

The Las Vegas Fire Department confirmed Sunday that one person was found dead in the flooding early Saturday west of downtown Las Vegas. “Upon arrival, a person was found unconscious and unresponsive. It is believed the person is a drowning victim,” the fire department said in a statement, adding that the Las Vegas Metro Police Department and the Clark County Coroner were investigating the death.

Flood watches remained in effect for cities such as Las Vegas and Flagstaff, Arizona through Sunday night. The heavy rain and flash flood potential was then expected to shift northward into northern Utah and southeastern Idaho on Sunday.

Allen said more bad weather was forecast for the Black Rock City area, which is about 122 miles from Reno.

“There is more rain forecast for the next few days, which could cause further delays and disruptions for participants attempting to leave the Festival as well as other operations within the Festival,” Allen previously said.

The sheriff said additional resources had been collected from around Northern Nevada to “assist with providing people with medical needs on the Playa until people can do it on their own.”

— ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this story.

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