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Former Trump advisor Peter Navarro was on Thursday sentenced to four months in prison for refusing to comply with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. Navarro was convicted in September on two counts of contempt of Congress — one for failing to produce documents related to the probe and another for skipping his deposition. Prosecutors argued Thursday that Navarro showed “utter disregard” for the House committee’s probe and “utter contempt for the rule of law.” They asked the judge to impose a six-month prison term.

On August 9, 2023, Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia issued a final Memorandum Opinion in Cigar Association of America et al. v. United States Food and Drug Administration et al., vacating the decision of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to deem premium cigars subject to the agency’s regulatory authority under the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act, as amended by the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (TCA).The decision concludes a seven-year conflict between the cigar industry and FDA. As previously reported, FDA issued a Final Rule on August 8,...

Ex-NYPD officer sentenced to record 10 years for Jan. 6 riot Retired New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Webster was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison for attacking the U.S. Capitol and using a metal flagpole to assault one of the police officers trying to hold off a mob of Donald Trump supporters. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana) 1 of 7 Retired New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster leaves the federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2022. Webster was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in...

The FBI might not have found any Civil War-era gold at a remote woodland site in Pennsylvania - but it's definitely got records of the agency's 2018 dig, and will soon have to turn them over to a father-son pair of treasure hunters. A federal judge has ordered the FBI to speed up the release of records about the search for the legendary gold, ruling Monday in favor of Finders Keepers, the treasure hunting outfit that led FBI agents to the remote site. The group accuses the Justice Department of slow-walking their request for information. The FBI must turn over...

On Friday, Federal District Judge Amita Mehta ruled that a civil suit alleging a conspiracy to foment the Jan. 6 insurrection could proceed. In an extremely thorough and detailed 112-page ruling, Mehta concluded that the plaintiffs had made a “plausible” case that former President Trump himself was at the center of a conspiracy to stop the peaceful transfer of power. While plausibility is not the same as proven, Mehta’s ruling is the first time such a finding has been made in an official proceeding.

Former President Donald Trump lost a bid Friday to toss lawsuits holding him responsible for inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Federal Judge Amit Mehta rejected Trump’s attempt to dismiss the civil cases with a claim that he has absolute immunity because he was in office at the time. “To deny a President immunity from civil damages is no small step,” Mehta wrote in a 112-page ruling. “The court well understands the gravity of its decision. But the alleged facts of this case are without precedent, and the court believes that its decision is consistent with...

A federal judge in Washington, DC, questioned former President Donald Trump's actions during his speech on January 6, 2021, as he considers for the first time whether Trump is immune from liability related to his supporters attacking the US Capitol. During a court hearing Monday, Judge Amit Mehta pointed out repeatedly that Trump on January 6 asked the crowd to march to the Capitol, but that he didn't speak up for two hours asking people to stop the violence. In the year since the US Capitol attack, judges remind us what it means to be American "The words are hard...

The January 6 riot was the worst day in American history, according to the Left. It was worse than Pearl Harbor. It was worse than the American Civil War. It was worse than the 9/11 attacks. It was worse than JFK’s assassination—all of which is false. If you think that, you’re either hysterical or historically illiterate. Was it a riot? Sure. Was it an armed insurrection? No. Not even close. No one was armed, which is a fake news narrative. These folks didn’t kill any cops either. Officer Brian Sicknick, whose name has been disgustingly weaponized to smear Trump supporters,...

A federal judge Thursday postponed the lead trial of accused Oath Keepers associates charged in the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol from January to April, conceding that continuing delays in the government's disclosure of a mountain of growing evidence made a trial this winter impossible.

There’s going to be a rally in Washington DC this weekend. It’s why the fencing is going back up around the US Capitol Building. There have been over 400 arrests stemming from the January 6 riot that has incorrectly been dubbed an armed insurrection. It was not worse than 9/11. It was not worse than Pearl Harbor and it sure wasn’t as bad as the Civil War. That’s the narrative in newsrooms. Everyone else has moved the hell on with their lives. NO ONE cares. MSNBC and CNN don’t count. It was not our nation’s best day. It was dark...

"This brief - and I will be reserved about what I'm about to say - reads less like a legal brief than something you might read on a blog," said Mehta, an Obama appointee. "And that's not acceptable. I expect better from you, I expect better from every other lawyer in this courtroom." Mehta conceded that there could be a valid legal argument for why Fischer's client would not be able to receive a fair trial in Washington, but said the lawyer's rhetoric was an inappropriate way to go about raising the issue. "You just can't come in here and...

A second federal judge in Washington questioned whether the lead felony charge leveled by the government against Capitol riot defendants is unconstitutionally vague, as 18 Oath Keepers accused in a conspiracy case urged the court on Wednesday to toss out a count carrying one of the heaviest penalties against them. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta asked how federal prosecutors distinguish felony conduct qualifying as “obstructing an official proceeding” of Congress — punishable by up to 20 years in prison — from misdemeanor offenses the government has charged others with, such as shouting to interrupt a congressional hearing. “Essentially, what...

President Donald Trump’s decision to declassify competing congressional memos about the validity of the so-called Steele dossier means the FBI has lost its authority to rebuff Freedom of Information Act requests about the bureau’s efforts to verify the report’s intelligence linking Trump to Russia during the 2016 campaign, a federal judge ruled on Thursday. U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta previously blessed the FBI’s decision to refuse such FOIA requests by declining to confirm whether any records exist about aspects of its handling of the hotly contested dossier, prepared by the former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele. The judge ruled...

In January, Mehta concurred with the FBI’s decision to not disclose the existence of any records containing the agency’s efforts to verify the dossier. He ruled that Trump’s tweets about the dossier didn’t require the FBI and other intelligence agencies to act on records requests. “But then the ground shifted,” writes Mehta of Trump declassifying the House memos. “As a result of the Nunes and Schiff Memos, there is now in the public domain meaningful information about how the FBI acquired the Dossier and how the agency used it to investigate Russian meddling.” “It remains no longer logical nor plausible...

On Friday District Judge Amit P. Mehta upheld BuzzFeed’s motion to compel the U.S. government to answer questions about the infamous Christopher Steele dossier. BuzzFeed published the dossier in January 2017. At the time, it reportedly proved collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia, and contained allegations about a “pee-pee tape.” The dossier’s allegations were unverified and relied on political opposition research. Aleksej Gubarev sued the Internet news outlet for defamation because the dossier included a paragraph that falsely said his company Webzilla was plotting to breach the Democratic Party’s cybersecurity. BuzzFeed is claiming “fair report privilege,” which grants protection...