Peter Navarro: ‘On Election Day, We Will Hold These Lawfare Jackals Accountable’

Peter Navarro, the former economic adviser to President Donald Trump who was imprisoned for contempt of Congress, told the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on Wednesday that the next Trump administration would punish the Democrats’ “lawfare jackals” for abusing their power to target the opposition.

Navarro spoke to the convention just hours after being released from federal prison in Miami, Florida. (One of his first stops earlier in the day had been to the Breitbart News booth, where he spoke to political editor Matthew Boyle.)

“Lawfare” refers to the coordinated effort by Democratic Party-aligned prosecutors, intelligence operatives, pundits, activists, and journalists to target former President Donald Trump and his allies with both criminal and civil cases.

In the Trump White House, Navarro was best known for his tough trade policies, which defied conventional wisdom.

In his speech, Navarro touched on economic themes, such as the inflationary cost of President Joe Biden’s policies. He also joked that he received a “MAGA” tattoo in prison.

And he thrilled the crowd by welcoming his fiancée, Bonnie, onstage, to exchange a long-anticipated kiss, to cheers.

But Navarro focused on restoring the rule of law by holding those who had turned him, and others, into political prisoners.

He recounted how a judge, Amit P. Mehta appointed by Barack Obama, sentenced him to prison after a Department of Justice that had previously declined to prosecute Democrats for contempt of Congress did so at the behest of a Democratic House of Representatives and the one-sided January 6 Committee, before which he refused to testify.

“They jailed me. Guess what. They did not break me,” he said, to applause. “And they will never break Donald Trump.”

He said:

And here’s the thing. When politics fails, the investigations and prosecutions begin. They did it to me. They’re going to do it to trump. But hear me out: they’ve also done it to catholics, pro-life activists, and parents — parents! — who are just standing up for the kids at school board meetings.

This is a tale of two Americas. And you know it wasn’t this way when Donald Trump was president. I remember the days. I was there.

In Trump’s America, you were safe, and our borders were secure. In Trump’s America, you were more prosperous, and you didn’t have to choose between — what? — food on the table, medicine in the cabinet, and a roof over your head.

[Applause]

And in Trump’s America, you didn’t have to worry about being locked up for disagreeing with the government.

[Applause]

I went to prison so you won’t have to.

[Applause]

I am your wake-up call. This is where I am going to have fun now, because I’m going to leave you with the last three words my beautiful fiancé said when I left that morning for prison. They weren’t, “I love you.” That was a given. She simply said, “We got this.” We got this.

[Applause, chants of “U.S.A.!” “We got this!”]

Bring my girl out now. That’s what these Lawfare jackals don’t understand. When they put people like me in prison and fire figurative, and now literal bullets at Donald Trump, they also assault our families. On Election Day, America will hold these Lawfare jackals accountable.

The crowd also chanted “Fight! Fight! Fight!”, recalling Trump’s words immediately after he was shot on Saturday.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of “”The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of “The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency,” now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.