Peter Navarro, a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing under President Trump, addressed the Founders’ Roundtable on a platform known as Fight Club, with the message, “If you don’t hold these SOBs accountable, they’re going to do it again and again,” shortly after ex-FBI Director James Comey faced indictment.
Navarro, who co-wrote the book with his fiancée, Bonnie Brenner, joined the discussion with – News Editor-in-Chief Alex Marlow and Washington Bureau Chief Matthew Boyle at the most recent Founders’ Roundtable event.
In his comments, Navarro claimed that Comey was “effectively… the mastermind or the useful idiot” behind the Steele Dossier and pointed to former FBI Agent Walter Giardina as “kind of the tip of the spear.” His remarks highlighted a call for accountability, a central theme of his book,
“We just had one of the great men in America assassinated, and for me, the sixth stage of grief—there’s usually only five—the sixth one for me has to be accountability,” he explained. “There has to be accountability for one simple reason—this whole idea of ‘Kumbaya, come let us reason together. Let’s make peace now,’ No, no. If you don’t hold these SOBs accountable, they’re going to do it repeatedly.”
He underscored the numerous ways that conservatives and right-wing populists have been targeted, whether through lawfare or political violence.
“They’re going to imprison us; Steve Bannon and I went to prison. They’re going to attempt to harm us, as they did twice to President Trump. They’re going after us, like Charlie Kirk. They’re stripping John Eastman and Jeff Clark of their bar licenses and their means of living, so they can’t support their families,” he elaborated. “They’re going to bankrupt Rudy Giuliani. They’re trying to financially ruin Mike Lindell. Every person I served with in the White House at a senior level became a target after I left, and Trump left office. At the least, they had to spend millions on legal fees, and at the worst, some are losing their lives.”
Navarro became the first former White House official to be sentenced to prison on a contempt of Congress charge, serving four months in 2024.
“What this book is really about is my journey into that prison system through a legal system which is fundamentally bankrupt, and these people have names. When I say, ‘They put us in prison,’ when I say, ‘They went after us’: Comey, Clapper, Page, Strzok, Schiff,” he said. “We know who these people are, and we can’t let them get away with it. Why? Because they’ll do it again. We are not the New Testament here. We are not about letting these people off the hook. We are about holding them accountable. So I think you got my message. I’m ready for the fight club.”
