Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) thinks Trump administration aide Peter Navarro’s indictment on contempt charges Friday is a sad sign that America is screwed up.
It’s not because the Texas congressman thinks Navarro should have followed the law and cooperated with a House select committee’s investigation of the U.S. Capitol riot but because Navarro’s arrest Friday means that Republicans might have to tell the truth when dealing with Congress or law enforcement.
Navarro was taken off a plane at a Washington-area airport Friday after the indictment on contempt of Congress charges was unsealed. He later appeared before a judge who released him on the condition that he notify the court before traveling.
Gohmert appeared Friday on Newsmax and lamented that Navarro’s indictment means “if you’re a Republican, you can’t even lie to Congress or lie to an FBI agent or they’re coming after you.”
Gohmert, a former lawyer and judge, said that Navarro was the victim of “a two-tiered justice system.”
He said he was especially angered that Navarro’s indictment came in the same week that a jury acquitted Michael Sussman, a lawyer for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, of charges that he had lied to the FBI.
However, many Twitter users pointed out that Gohmert was simply angry that his fellow party members weren’t being allowed to lie under oath.
This has been an emotional week for Gohmert, who went viral on Thursday after he chastised Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) for suggesting that he and his fellow Republicans are unwilling to entertain possible solutions to gun violence as a sign that they support killers more than schoolchildren.
“How dare you? You think we don’t have hearts,” Gohmert said.