Dershowitz: The Indictment of Navarro is Unconstitutional

-----Original Message-----
From: Gatestone Institute <list@gatestoneinstitute.org>
To: add1dda@aol.com
Sent: Tue, Jun 7, 2022 5:16 a.m.

The Indictment of Navarro is Unconstitutional

In this mailing: Alan M. Dershowitz: The Indictment of Navarro is Unconstitutional Lawrence A. Franklin: How the Free World Can Help Taiwan Avoid Ukraine's Fate The Indictment of Navarro is Unconstitutional by Alan M. Dershowitz  •  June 7, 2022 at 5:00 am       Navarro has a strong claim of executive privilege that should be decided by the courts before any indictment can lawfully issue. [A]bsent a judicial order, he cannot lawfully be indicted for invoking executive privilege and refusing to reveal arguably privileged material just because a committee of Congress, controlled by Democrats, has voted that he should. It is not enough to allow him to appeal after the fact, because information, once revealed, cannot be erased. He is obliged to claim privilege now and refuse to respond. That is not a crime. It is the constitutionally correct action. Navarro's indictment violates several key constitutional rights, including due process, fair warning and executive privilege. It also violates the separation of powers, under which the courts have the authority to resolve conflicts between the legislative and executive branches over claims of executive privilege in response to legislative subpoenas. Due process and fair warning require that these issues first be resolved by the courts before an indictment can be issued. The Biden Justice Department knows the law and it should not be acting lawlessly to make political points. In an age of partisan law enforcement, however, it is far from certain that neutral justice will be done. Some courts have been caught up in result-oriented injustice.... The Bible admonishes judges not to "recognize faces." That command is the origin of the blindfolded statue of Lady Justice. But in our age of pervasive partisanship, too many judges peek out their blindfolds and rule differently based on the faces and political affiliations of the litigants. The indictment of Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress violates several provisions of the Constitution and should be dismissed. Navarro has a strong claim of executive privilege that should be decided by the courts before any indictment can lawfully issue. Pictured: Navarro speaks to the media after his hearing in federal court on June 3, 2022 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images) The indictment of Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress violates several provisions of the Constitution and should be dismissed. Navarro has a strong claim of executive privilege that should be decided by the courts before any indictment can lawfully issue. Continue Reading Article How the Free World Can Help Taiwan Avoid the Ukraine's Fate by Lawrence A. Franklin  •  June 7, 2022 at 4:00 am       An important lesson learned after Russia's invasion of the Ukraine is that the Free World should immediately establish normal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The only message that ambiguity sends to Communist China is weakness, and a tacit green light to invade. America and her Asian allies would also do well to implement military and political initiatives in the Indo-Pacific region that would discourage any Chinese calculus to "reunite" with Taiwan by force. On the diplomatic front, the Free World -- led, one wishes, by the US -- could help raise Taiwan's global diplomatic profile by sponsoring its participation as an official member state in several international organizations, including the United Nations. The US Department of State should restore full diplomatic relations with Taiwan, as advocated by former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during a recent visit to Taipei. In addition, the US could encourage the world's democracies to establish official bilateral links. Another initiative by the US could be officially to recognize Taiwan as the Republic of China, while urging all the world's democracies to do the same. Taiwan is not the Ukraine, but the suppression of Taiwanese democracy by the Chinese Communist regime would be at least as negatively consequential to global democracies as any Russian conquest of the Ukraine. Unless the West acts boldly and demonstrates to China that the cost to it of on attack on Taiwan will be crushing, China will not be able to help feeling irresistibly tempted not only to carry out its longtime dream of overpowering Taiwan, but also assuming dominance, for a start, in the South and East China Seas. China has already built artificial islands that it pledged would not be militarized, but which soon were; and has effectively taken over the Solomon Islands -- near American territory in Guam and Hawai'i -- and wields strategic influence in Sri Lanka, at the control-point of the Indian Ocean. The Chinese military might then "help" its near-abroad neighbors to resolve bilateral territorial disputes in China's favor. These might include the Japanese-claimed Senkaku Islands, the Philippines' claimed Scarborough Shoal, and Vietnam's claim to the Paracel Islands. Such an apocalyptic turn of events could even encourage North Korea finally to attack South Korea. America's needs above all quickly to establish a massive credible deterrence against the People's Republic of China. Unfortunately, that seems the only realistic means of bringing China's out-of-control aggression to a stop.   The only message that ambiguity sends to Communist China is weakness, and a tacit green light to invade Taiwan. America and her Asian allies would do well to implement military and political initiatives in the Indo-Pacific region that would discourage any Chinese calculus to "reunite" with Taiwan by force. (Image source: iStock) US President Joe Biden, when, during a May 23 joint press briefing with Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, was asked by a reporter if " the US would militarily support Taiwan if China attacked" he answered, "Yes, that is the commitment we made" -- a statement that unfortunately the State Department immediately walked back. While China's reaction to Biden's remarks was predictably negative, the Free World, after Russia's February 24 invasion of Ukraine, must not assume that Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping's repeated pledge to "restore Taiwan to the Motherland" is mere chest-thumping. An important lesson learned after Russia's invasion of Ukraine is that the Free World should immediately establish normal diplomatic relations with Taiwan. The US should end its diplomatic ambiguity regarding whether or not it would defend Taiwan in the eventuality of a Chinese Communist assault on the island democracy. Continue Reading Article