To this point, many Democrats, independents, and certain Republicans (Cheney, Kinzinger, and certainly some unknowns) have had little reason to believe that the Justice Department had any interest in prosecuting those who may have planned the January 6th attack from inside the White House, or at least outside the Capitol. But a new development may signal the most significant expansion of the investigation yet. Trump economic advisor Peter Navarro has been subpoenaed to testify to a grand jury on Thursday.
Navarro was not in or around the Capitol on January 6th and thus his subpoena is the first to involve someone not directly attacking the Capitol.
As CNN Jeffery Toobin notes, the expansion of the testimony to the grand jury represents a significant step closer to Trump himself:
If in fact, this is a grand jury subpoena for Peter Navarro to talk about what was going on in and around the White House on January 6, that would be a significant expansion of this investigation and one that gets much closer to President Trump…
…But, it is potentially, very significant because, you know, there’s been a tremendous amount of frustration among people who are still angry about what happened January 6 and that the Justice Department’s investigation has seemed to be very limited only to the people physically inside the capitol or those directly connected to them.”
That is certainly true.
“The issue of did the president, and did the people around the president, violate the law by trying to overturn the election, that, as far as we know, has not been investigated by the Justice Department so far. But if the subpoena is what it appears to be, that would signal a significant expansion of the Justice Department investigation. We should know more if Peter Navarro files this lawsuit he claims to be going to file — he would certainly attach the subpoena as an exhibit to that lawsuit. He says he’s going to file it today and we should know more about what the Justice Department continues to do.”
It is stunning that we have come this far and yet finally – possibly – be on the precipice of an investigation and prosecution for what many agree had to have been a plot coordinated inside the White House. Indeed, the entire “alternate elector” theory was being discussed within the first week of November. That kind of coordination is indicative of some sort of centralized planning. The Justice Department must investigate how that plan evolved as a conspiracy that ended in the attack on the U.S. Capitol and then prosecute whatever crimes they find, no matter how high the conspiracy went.
It is stunning that it has taken this long but it is on Merrick Garland and his advisors to see it through. Navarro may be the beginning.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3I9E5f6-Uds
Jason Miciak believes a day without learning is a day not lived. He is a political writer, features writer, author, and attorney. He is a Canadian-born dual citizen who spent his teen and college years in the Pacific Northwest and has since lived in seven states. He now enjoys life as a single dad of a young girl, writing from the beaches of the Gulf Coast. He loves crafting his flower pots, cooking, while also studying scientific philosophy, religion, and non-math principles behind quantum mechanics and cosmology. Please feel free to contact for speaking engagements or any concerns.
