Trump Allies Suffer Two Legal Blows in One Day

Donald Trump's allies have suffered two legal hits on Tuesday over claims the 2020 election was stolen due to widespread voter fraud and for not returning government documents.

The Supreme Court declined to reverse sanctions on Sidney Powell and other Trump-allied lawyers who filed a meritless lawsuit challenging Michigan's election results, while Peter Navarro, a Trump adviser, is threatened with contempt of court for not returning presidential records to the National Archives.

Powell, a lawyer who was prominent in aiding Trump's various efforts to contest the 2020 presidential election results, previously accepted a plea deal from Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis in the Georgia election interference case. As part of the deal, Powell will avoid prison in the case and will agree to testify truthfully in future trials, making her a valuable asset for prosecutors looking for information about Trump and the other co-conspirators.

Trump himself was hit with charges of conspiracy to commit forgery, solicitation of violation of oath by a public official, and breaking Georgia's anti-racketeering act by a grand jury last year, charges for which he has since pleaded not guilty. A total of 18 other co-conspirators were also named in the indictment, including Powell as well as other prominent Trump allies like Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman.

Meanwhile, earlier this month a judge ruled that another Trump ally and adviser, Navarro, must serve a four-month prison sentence despite his pending appeals as he was convicted on charges of contempt of Congress for defying a House committee subpoena. He will now become one of the first individuals in the U.S. to serve jail time for contempt of Congress charges in roughly 50 years.

On Tuesday, the Supreme Court declined to take an appeal by a group of Trump-allied lawyers who faced financial and professional ramifications in Michigan as a result of a lawsuit in which they attempted to reverse the state's election results due to their claims that the 2020 election was stolen via fraud.

Lawyers Powell, Lin Wood and five others were ordered by a district court to pay more than $175,000 to cover the legal fees that the city of Detroit and state incurred to defend the lawsuit. In addition to the fees, Powell, Wood and the others were referred to the bar associations in each of their states for disciplinary proceedings.

However, the one-line order from the high court on Tuesday rejected the appeals from the lawyers, allowing a decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit that partially upheld the penalties to stay in place.

Newsweek has reached out to Powell via email online form for comment.

Meanwhile, federal judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly threatened on Tuesday to hold Navarro in contempt of court for defying her order to return dozens or more of presidential records to the National Archives.

According to the opinion order, Kollar-Kotelly rules that at least some of the records Navarro is withholding from the Department of Justice (DOJ) are Presidential Records despite Navarro arguing they were his personal documents and did not need to be returned to the government.

"It is clear that Defendant continues to possess Presidential records that have not been produced to their rightful owner, the United States," Kollar-Kotelly, an appointee of former President Bill Clinton, said in a a six-page opinion.

Kollar-Kotelly is giving Navarro until March 21 to review 600 records to determine whether additional government files are among them or he will face a potential contempt citation.

Newsweek has reached out to a lawyer for Navarro via email for comment.

In addition, the judge said she plans to refer the matter to a magistrate judge in an effort to make sure the government gets the documents in which it is entitled to.

This comes as Trump's Georgia election interference case faces a delay after Willis found herself at the center of a potential ethics violation related to her alleged affair with Nathan Wade, a special prosecutor whom she hired to lead the interference case.

Judge Scott McAfee is expected to make a ruling regarding Willis in the coming weeks.