US Judicial Conference endorsed FREE public access to PACER. Updated: Peter Navarro indicted

Dear JCoUS on behalf of my children’s college fund —thank you. My combined quarterly PACER fees average over $675 -of that over $289 comes out of my own pocket —Tuesday’s announcement delightful

Editorial note -this article was updated with the Peter Navarro Indictment of Criminal Contempt -filing at the bottom of the original article

Unlike some I continue to have zero plans of ever paywalling my Substack. If you recall in 2017 I made a public promise, that I would never monetize my research. In kind, I kept that promise through the five iterations of my twitter accounts, and no I’m never returning to that cesspool of a platform. Again for over five years I have used my own personal funds to pull down various filings from PACER and then uploaded those filings —so my readers/followers had a no-fee access to those documents

For the record I have a professional (14+ years) and personal (5+ years) PACER account. And shocker — professional ethics means something, at least to me. (irrespective of the specious bullshit allegations made about me) Sharing information means you’re also sharing knowledge. And I can not recall a single instance where I’ve withheld any document, reports, or court filings. I know my readers/followers are smart and I remain committed to providing them original source documents, again at no cost to them. Notwithstanding by my rough calculations:

• PACER charges $0.10 per page with a maximum of $3.00 per filing (this is applicable to database searches, docket reports and various filings.

• …since 2017 I’ve spent over $5,780.00 to ensure my readers (and former twitter followers) had access to hundreds (possibly thousands) of Court filings.

• My Spicy snark, highlights and redlines are also free <snickers> as are my typos

It still makes me laugh that if your only criticism is “typos” then I actually feel sorry for you. Only an intellectually stunted swamp monkey would think that’s a viable impeachment of the facts presented. Do you know how many typos, punctuation, and grammatical errors are contained within our Country’s founding documents? Or in countless court filings.

ProTip if you see [….] or sic you do understand that signifies a typo or grammatical errors? (gasp -me not clutching my invisible pearls) Hilariously you actually think criticizing my proclivity to typos, somehow makes you smart. It doesn’t. English is my second language, so what exactly is your excuse? And yes after a full day of work —I use my free time to research and publish articles. All while you’re tweeting like a barking junkyard that’s high on drugs and booze (whispers: thank you for resetting the statue of limitations clock and apparently I’m still living in your heads rent free) <snort>

Any who… where was I? Oh that’s right the newly released Meeting minutes.

On May 31, 2022 the Judicial Conference of the United States released their March 2022 meeting minutes which endorsed no longer charging for “searches” and that’s pretty significant. Sometimes if you’re searching for a case or specifically filings —you can easily rack up significant fees, largely predicated on your search perimeters.

Pursuant to Public Law No. 102-140, PACER

“is funded by electronic public access (EPA) user fees set by the judiciary.”… the Committee on Court Administration and Case Management considered PACER feedback received regarding “the feasibility of the [c]ommittee’s proposal to make PACER searches free for non-commercial users.”

the committee recommended the Judicial Conference’s endorsement to make “all searches free of charge for all non-commercial users of any future new modernized case management, electronic filings, and public access systems implemented by the judiciary.”

Additionally and as further as detailed on pages 12 and 13 of the newly released March 2022 meeting minutes —the JCoUS addressed record management, of which there were four areas of consideration:

• Temporary Administrative Records “simplify the schedules by instituting a more uniform retention period.“

• Audio Recordings of Bankruptcy Proceedings. adding “new guidance for

  digital audio recordings of bankruptcy proceedings and their corresponding digital notes (when applicable), and provide retention guidance for legacy paper logs, databases, indices, or lists used to inventory and locate sound recordings within the court’s collection of audio cassette tapes and reel-to-reel tape”

• General Correspondence Files ..”allow general correspondence files to be destroyed ‘when business use ceases’…, permit general correspondence files to be destroyed when no longer needed for business use.”

• Employment Dispute Resolution Records “…reflect recent changes to the

  judiciary’s employment dispute resolution process and associated records”

At any rate I’m taking a few days off from researching/publishing because today marks five weeks since my former boss’ memorial service. I need to work on accepting his death and moving on with my professional life without him. The struggle is real because closing that last page on that chapter, knowing he next chapter doesn’t include him —it’s a daunting task. I’m still not in a good headspace but I’m infinitely better than I was five weeks ago.

And lastly enjoy your daily saltwater therapy

file411_dc

A post shared by File411 (@file411_dc)

See you in a few days. Be Well -Filey

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I mean less than two minutes after I published this article the DC Federal Court unsealed Navarro’s indictment

Peter Navarro Indictment …

He was charged with one contempt count (see DDC-ECF or see my Scribd account for the indictment) —Navarro’s refusal to not only appear for a deposition and refusal to produce documents to the House Select Committee on Jan 6th. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Washington. The USAO-DC stated that indictment was returned Thursday and unsealed Friday, and Navarro will make his initial appearance this afternoon in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

You can reread my previous February 2022 article concerning Navarro’s subpoena here and you can read my previous March 2022 article here concerning the DC Federal Grand Jury subpoenas here. And this link/search will take you to the half a dozen previous articles concerning Navarro

Each count of contempt of Congress carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, as well as a fine of up to $100,000. Again this particular statue has a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 days but maximum sentencing is up to one year. Hence that’s a nuance that many may not understand but I think it’s important for my readers to understand that nuance.

Also one has to wonder if Navarro knew this indictment was coming and that’s why earlier this week he selectively leaked to Politico a copy of his lawsuit where he disclosed that he and Trump had received a (DC) Federal Grand Jury subpoena…

on Feb. 9, 2022, the Select Committee issued a subpoena to Navarro. The subpoena required him to appear and produce documents to the Select Committee on Feb. 23, 2022, and to appear for a deposition before the Select Committee on March 2, 2022. According to the indictment, Navarro refused to appear to give testimony as required by subpoena and refused to produce documents in compliance with a subpoena.

           

In its subpoena, the Select Committee said it had reason to believe that Navarro had information relevant to its investigation. Navarro, formerly an advisor to the President on various trade and manufacturing policies, has been a private citizen since departing the White House on Jan. 20, 2021

Also as luck would have it the USAO-DC (see press release) included a copy of Navarro’s indictment: Download Navarro - Indictment -sheesh can I get a $0.70 pacer refund? I’m kidding but I wanted you to know how to access the indictment too.