NATION IN BRIEF
Former Trump adviser Navarro ordered to report to prison March 19
WASHINGTON — Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro will have to report for a 4-month prison sentence on two contempt of Congress charges on March 19 in Miami unless an appeals court steps in, his attorneys said in a court filing late Sunday.
Navarro again asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to allow him to remain free while he is appealing his conviction from a jury trial last year.
If the D.C. Circuit does not do so, Navarro’s lawyers requested a halt to starting his prison sentence to allow him to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Navarro was one of several witnesses who refused to cooperate with subpoenas from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The House ultimately voted to hold Navarro and a handful of other witnesses in contempt and refer the conduct to prosecutors.
A federal jury convicted Navarro on two counts of contempt of Congress following a jury trial in September. The D.C. Circuit has said it would decide the legal issues in his appeal without hearing oral argument.
Trump flip flops on House Tiktok ban, pulling rug from under Republican allies
Former President Donald
Trump is flip-flopping on banning Tiktok, pulling the rug from under Republican congressional allies pushing legislation that would force the popular Chineseowned app to be sold.
Trump Monday reversed his previous strong support for a Gop-backed bill that gives the app’s Chinese owner a few months to sell it or be shut down.
“There’s a lot of good, and there’s a lot of bad” with Tiktok, Trump said on CNBC. “There are a lot of people on Tiktok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on Tiktok who will go crazy without it.”
Trump conceded that Tiktok is a national security risk because the Chinese government could force the app’s owner Bytedance hand over data from U.S. users.
But the presumptive Republican presidential nominee sought to change the subject to Facebook, which he claims would benefit from a ban of Tiktok.
“Without Tiktok, you can make Facebook bigger, and I consider Facebook to be an enemy of the people,” Trump added.
Trump had vociferously supported a proposal to force a sale of Tiktok while he was president.
Congressional Republicans are now pushing the bill, which has won widespread bipartisan support. And President Joe Biden last week came out in support of the measure.
It’s unclear what may have spurred Trump to change his tune on Tiktok, although the app appears to be a hotbed of MAGA propaganda videos.
He admits recently meeting at his Mar-a-lago estate with a Republican hedge fund owner who holds a massive stake in Tiktok but denies discussing the app.
That was his reason for torpedoing a bipartisan border security proposal that included many GOP policy priorities.
Trump’s pushback puts him on the opposite side of the debate of powerful congressional Republicans, including House Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise, who has called the legislation a “critical national security bill.”
Nearly 100 migrants cross into the US from the Tijuana River canal
SAN DIEGO — Nearly 100 people crossed into the U.S. from the Tijuana River channel on Sunday morning, an incident that was captured on video by people in waiting line at the Pedwest crossing nearby in San Ysidro.
The group — made up of people of various nationalities — turned themselves in to
U.S. Border Patrol agents about 11:35 a.m., U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said in a statement. The group was transported to CBP facilities for processing.
Nine people — eight Mexican nationals, including four children, and one adult from Brazil — couldn’t cross and stayed on the Tijuana side, according to Mexican officials.
Late last year, Mexican officials installed a chain-link fence reinforced with razor wire at the top and bottom along a stretch of the Tijuana River channel in response to mass crossing incidents reported in the area. The area is guarded by Mexico’s National Guard and Mexican immigration agents.
Enrique Lucero, director of the Tijuana’s Migrant Affairs Office, said Monday that the group passed through a section where the chain-link fence had been cut.
Judge rejects Texas AG Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down El Paso charity that helps migrants
DALLAS — A state judge Monday rejected, for now, Attorney General Ken Paxton’s attempt to shut down an El Paso nonprofit that assists migrants, calling the state official’s actions unfairly harsh.
District Judge Francisco Dominguez questioned Paxton’s true motivation in filing suit against Annunciation House, a Catholic charity that operates several shelters that provide housing and other services to migrants without regard to their legal status.
“The Attorney General’s efforts to run roughshod over Annunciation House, without regard to due process or fair play, call into question the true motivation for the Attorney General’s attempt to prevent Annunciation House from providing the humanitarian and social services that it provides,” Dominguez wrote.
“There is real and credible concern that the attempt to prevent Annunciation House from conducting business in Texas was predetermined,” Dominguez said in a four-page order.
The dispute between Paxton and Annunciation House began last month when lawyers with the attorney general’s office demanded a long list of documents, including records identifying every migrant helped and the services provided since the start of 2022.
Source: Tribune News Service