Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $9,500 fine for defying a congressional subpoena related to the investigation of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In September, Navarro faced conviction on two separate charges: one for his failure to attend a committee deposition, which was deemed contempt of Congress, and another for his refusal to provide necessary documents.
His sentencing took place in federal court on a Thursday, the exact date of which has not been specified in the provided information.
During his sentencing hearing, Navarro expressed his belief that executive privilege had been invoked by former President Donald Trump when he received the subpoena.
This argument, however, was disputed by prosecutors at trial. As Assistant U.S. Attorney John Crabb said during the hearing,
“The defendant believes he is above the law, but no one is above the law”.
Navarro’s attorney, Stanley Woodward, also pointed out that Navarro wasn’t the only person who didn’t comply with a subpoena from the House select committee, citing Dan Scavino and Mark Meadows as other individuals who did not provide any testimony.
Despite these arguments, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta challenged Woodward’s claim that Navarro has “accepted responsibility” for his crime, stating,
“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”.
Following the sentencing, Navarro’s attorneys immediately filed an appeal. Navarro himself was quoted saying,
“I said from the beginning, I am willing to go to prison to settle this issue. I’m willing to do that. But I also know that the likelihood of me going to prison is relatively small because we are right on this issue”.
This case marks the second instance of a Trump adviser being convicted and sentenced for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 panel. Steve Bannon was found guilty in July of defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena and was subsequently sentenced to four months in prison, pending an appeal.
Prosecutors had initially asked for Navarro, who served as the director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy under Trump, to be sentenced to six months behind bars.
Federal prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo,
“The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law”.
However, Navarro’s attorneys requested that the court sentence him to no more than six months and require he pay a fine of $100 for each count. U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta, who handed down the sentence, told Navarro,
“You are not a victim, you are not the object of a political prosecution,” and added, “These are circumstances of your own making”.
The Jan. 6 committee’s 17-month probe concluded with the release of its final report in December 2022. The report determined that there was a “multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election” and made several recommendations to Congress to prevent such incidents in the future.
