Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro sentenced for contempt of Congress in Capitol riot probe

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro was sentenced Thursday to four months behind bars for flouting a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the 2021 Capitol riot.

Navarro, 74, argued that he couldn’t comply with the subpoena for his testimony and relevant documents because of executive privilege, but a DC jury convicted him in September of two counts of contempt of Congress.

“I haven’t heard a word of contrition from Dr. Navarro since this case began,” US District Judge Amit Mehta said before imposing the penalty.

The former presidential trade adviser made a plea for mercy, but Mehta still exceeded the mandatory minimum of two months of incarceration.

Navarro insisted to journalists as he arrived that he was the subject of “a very important landmark constitutional case that is going to resolve important issues about the Constitution’s separation of powers as well as the integrity and efficiency of presidential decision-making.”

The same courthouse will host former President Donald Trump’s trial for challenging the results of the 2020 election ahead of the riot. The trial is expected this year as the 77-year-old ex-president seeks a second non-consecutive term against President Biden in the November election.

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro talks to the media as he arrives at federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. AP

Navarro, who is well known for advocating tariffs and a tougher economic approach toward China, was Trump’s director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy and left the post two weeks after the riot that disrupted certification of Biden’s victory in the Electoral College.

Former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon — who, unlike Navarro, was not a White House aide during the riot — was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in July 2022 and was sentenced to four months in prison. Bannon is free pending an appeal.

Navarro said he unsuccessfully attempted a late about-face, but only after the House voted against him.

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro talks to the media as he arrives at federal courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. AP

“I reached out to the Justice Department. I offered them a possible way forward,” Navarro told reporters after he was arrested by the FBI in June 2022. “They responded with effectively the same kind of thing as you see in Stalin’s Russia or the Chinese Communist Party.”

The case was brought by the office of US Attorney Matthew Graves, a Biden appointee whose team declined to prosecute two other former Trump aides whom the then-Democrat-controlled House voted to hold in contempt.

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and Trump social media director Dan Scavino were not prosecuted, which the judge in Navarro’s case said undermined Navarro’s claim that the prosecution was politically motivated.

Vice Chair Liz Cheney (right) and Chairman Bennie Thompson (left) of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 US Capitol insurrection testify before the House Rules Committee. AP

“Joe Biden’s not responsible for your prosecution,” Mehta declared at one point, Politico journalist Kyle Cheney reported in a live tweet-chain of courtroom exchanges.

Graves has taken heat from Republicans for meanwhile failing to bring charges in many conventional criminal cases. His office uniquely prosecutes both federal and local crimes in DC and didn’t pursue charges 67% of the time following arrests in fiscal 2022 and 56% of the time in fiscal 2023.

Graves has blamed issues with certification at DC’s crime lab, but critics note that violent crime has soared in the capital city, with an 82% spike in car thefts in 2023, a 67% jump in robberies and a 35% bump in murders.