Trump aide Peter Navarro receives four-months jail term

A federal judge sentenced Peter Navarro, a former adviser of Donald Trump, to four months in jail on Thursday for his refusal to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. The judge also imposed a fine of $9,500 on Navarro and rejected his claims of being a victim of political persecution.
Navarro was found guilty in September of two counts of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring subpoenas from the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol.
The committee, which completed its report and disbanded in late 2022 after the Republicans regained the House majority, sought Navarro’s testimony and documents related to his role in spreading false claims about the 2020 election and promoting Trump’s efforts to overturn the results.
The contempt charges carried a minimum sentence of one month in prison. The prosecutors asked for a six-month sentence, arguing that Navarro “put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress’s investigation.” They said Navarro “chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law” and “thumbed his nose” at the committee.
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U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta delivered the sentence on Thursday and told Navarro that he was “not a victim” or a target of a political prosecution. He said Navarro had received due process and had no valid reason to defy the subpoenas.
Mehta also criticized Navarro for invoking “executive privilege” as a defense, saying that it was not a “magical incantation” or a “get out of jail free card” that could shield him from congressional oversight.
“What I find disappointing is that in all of this, even today, there’s little acknowledgment of what your obligation is as an American — to cooperate with Congress, to provide them with information that they’re seeking,” Mehta said.
“Fine, you think it’s a political hatchet job, it’s domestic terrorists running the committee. They had a job to do, and you made it harder. It’s really that simple.”
Navarro appealed his conviction right after the sentencing.
During the hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb said that the prosecutors in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia were committed to “enforcing the law without fear, favor or political influence” and called Navarro’s prosecution “righteous.”
“The defendant believes he is above the law, but no one is above the law,” Crabb said.
“We are a nation of laws. The rule of law is crucial to a functioning democracy.”
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Navarro was one of the key figures in Trump’s campaign to undermine the 2020 election. He authored a report that Trump falsely claimed showed that it was statistically “impossible” for him to have lost the election. Trump cited the report in his notorious “will be wild” tweet on Dec. 19, 2020, urging his supporters to come to Washington for a “Big protest” on Jan. 6. Many of the rioters who stormed the Capitol said they were inspired by that tweet.
Navarro’s lawyer, Stanely Woodward, asked the judge to stay the sentence pending appeal, citing “novel issues” in the case, such as Navarro’s belief that Trump had invoked executive privilege.