Team,
It’s refreshing to be able to talk about these things on CNN.
I think you will enjoy this. Spoiler Alert: James Comey should be investigated and, if what we think we know is true, he should be prosecuted, convicted, and sent to prison.
Peter Navarro
TRANSCRIPT
The Arena (CNN) – Senior Trade Counselor Peter Navarro Interview
KASIE HUNT: Joining us to discuss is a top White House economic advisor, Peter Navarro. He is the author of the new book. I Went To Prison so you won’t have to, sir, thanks very much for being here.
SENIOR TRADE COUNSELOR PETER NAVARRO: Great to be with you. And it is kind of funny. I mean, I did go to prison. I did go to prison for honoring the Constitution and I’m the only one. And meanwhile, there’s a lot of people out there who should be in prison. In my judgment, and I think in the judgment of many people in the Trump administration, James Comey, it’s the top of that list. Now, I don’t have any inside knowledge in
HUNT: Is what’s going on with James Comey? How is it not basically the same thing that you’re saying happened to you
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Because he broke the law and I didn’t. Simple as that. Let me lay this out for you. The big picture here, and again, I don’t know,
HUNT: You weren’t convicted in court.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: I don’t know what he would be charged with. There’s so many things.
HUNT: Our reporting is perjury.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: There’s so many things, but I will tell you this. He was the architect in mastermind of what’s come to be known as the Russia hoax. And it started with the steel dossier. And the steel dossier. We agree that was something that the Clinton campaign paid for. It was a fake dossier designed to falsely tie Donald Trump to Russia. We know that. Now, what’s interesting about that is the guy and I went to prison, so you won’t have to in the first chapter, who put me in leg irons in an arm take down at Reagan when they could have just called me up. Walter Giadina, he was the guy who read the steel dossier according to whistleblowers and said it was correct. And then me, lemme finish it. Comey signed the FSA warrants based on what he must have known was false or spurious information. And that in and of itself, he broke the law. That alone, nevermind all the lying.
HUNT: Let’s circle back to what is here in this book. Because look, the reality is there were a lot of people who were involved in were called up to testify to Congress. There were people who didn’t answer subpoenas, who didn’t land in prison. Could the president of the United States now not have easily gotten you off the hook? You and Steve Bannon were both found yourselves in prison. There were others that members of Congress, including Republicans who were protected in these proceedings.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: So lets,
HUNT: Why not you?
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Okay, so let’s talk about it. There’s one guy who was on your set, he’s sitting right across from me. He was the only Republican along with Liz Cheney who put me in prison. He’s responsible, but everybody else was a Democrat. So right off the bat, it was a Democrat majority. It was a Democrat Attorney general. It was a Democrat prosecutor. A Democrat judge. And the thing is, I was the first senior White House advisor ever charged with this alleged crime. When for 50 years the Department of Justice says that if I got a subpoena as a senior White House advisor, it was my duty, my duty to refuse that subpoena. So how did I wind up in prison? It was pure weaponized injustice and I drew the short straw. There were other people who went up the hill, they pleaded the fifth or they testified I was the one who upheld principle and it was strictly by duty to the Constitution. Full stop my cases on.
HUNT: But if you’d been closer to President Trump, could you not have gotten?
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: No. No. How would you do that?
HUNT: Because he could have written a letter and said that it was privilege.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: By that time he was out of look nowhere. Casey in the law, in statutes, in anywhere in court decisions, as it say, you had to have a letter for executive privilege. That’s one of the things the courts will do. It’s a presumed privilege. It says so right in Supreme Court dicta. So what happened was they never asked for a letter. Congress never asked for a letter. I repeatedly asked them to ask to ask President Trump
HUNT: The issue is
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: To waive the privilege,
HUNT: not Congress.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: And they never asked. Then I get out and they say, well, you didn’t properly invoke executive privilege. Really? Okay, what are you telling me this now? And then I had an evidentiary hearing. I proved it five times over. It was a witch hunt and a kangaroo court. They spent four months of my life in prison.
HUNT: And you think it’s different then, I mean, and considering what you believe happened to you,
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Yes.
HUNT: We’ve obviously gone back and forth about it, but you believe that this happened to you. We now are learning that this attorney that was installed by President Trump after the Eastern District of New York was not going to pursue an indictment against Comey. The president puts in his person and suddenly they’re going to pursue it. That’s okay with you considering your experience.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: I have been saying consistently since at least 2021, that Comey clapper page struck all of the FBI Schiff among others should be investigated for crimes that they committed. They broke the law. Nobody disputes that. Comey lied. He lied to Congress, he leaked. That’s all true. He signed those FISA runs. I got to emphasize to your viewers, okay, look, CNN is not going to be receptive to this kind of thing, but the Russia hoax was a hoax. We know that. And Comey was the guy who set all of that in motion with the help of the FBI agent who put me in leg irons. I mean, imagine that Casey, they put me in leg irons when all they had to do was call me on the phone. Was that not partisan circus arrest? So Comey. There’s just a long list.
HUNT: I’m just here to talk about your book sir. I’m not,
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: what’s that?
HUNT: I’m just here to talk to you about your book and we’re unfortunately out of time, but I do want to say thank you very much for coming and I appreciate when you come on to talk about the economic issues.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: I’m glad you
HUNT: The book is I went to prison so you won’t have to
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: This book’s here,
HUNT: You can pick it up. Bookshelves everywhere. Peter Navarro, thank you.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Don’t just pick it up.
HUNT: We’ll be right back.
SENIOR COUNSELOR NAVARRO: Don’t throw it at the wall.
