Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro sentenced for contempt of Congress in Capitol riot investigation

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro was sentenced Thursday to four months in prison for ignoring a subpoena from the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.

Navarro, 74, had argued that he could not comply with a subpoena for his testimony and relevant documents because of executive privilege, but a D.C. jury convicted him in September of two counts of contempt of Congress.

“I have not heard a word of contrition from Dr. Navarro since this case began,” said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. saying before imposing the penalty, including a $9,500 fine.

The former presidential trade adviser pleaded for clemency, but Mehta still exceeded the mandatory minimum of two months of incarceration.

Navarro insisted to reporters upon his arrival that he was the subject of “a very important historic constitutional case that will resolve important questions about the Constitution’s separation of powers, as well as the integrity and efficiency of presidential decision-making.”

After the sentencing hearing, Navarro, who was not immediately taken into federal custody, said he believes the Supreme Court should hear his next appeal.

The same court will host the trial of former President Donald Trump over his challenge to the 2020 election results before the riot.

That case is expected to begin later this year, when the 77-year-old former president seeks a second non-consecutive term against President Biden in the November election.

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

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

Trump’s former chief strategist Steve Bannon, who, unlike Navarro, was not a White House aide on January 6, 2021, was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress in July 2022 and sentenced to four months. of prison. Bannon is free pending an appeal.

Navarro said he tried unsuccessfully to make a late U-turn, but only after the House voted against him.

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

“I approached the Department of Justice. I offered them a possible path forward,” Navarro told reporters after being arrested by the FBI in June 2022. “They responded effectively with the same kind of things you see in Stalin’s Russia or the Chinese Communist Party.”

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

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

Vice President Liz Cheney (R) and Chairman Bennie Thompson (L) of the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol testify before the House Rules Committee. AP

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“Joe Biden is not responsible for his prosecution,” Mehta declared at one point during the procedure, according to Politico.

Graves, meanwhile, has drawn criticism from Republicans for not pressing charges in many conventional criminal cases. His office uniquely prosecutes federal and local crimes in D.C. and did not file charges 67% of the time after arrests in fiscal year 2022 and 56% of the time in fiscal year 2023.

The prosecutor has blamed problems with certification at the D.C. crime lab, but critics point out that violent crime has skyrocketed in the nation’s capital, which saw an 82% increase in car thefts in 2023, a 67% increase in robberies and a 35% increase in murders. .

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Source: vtt.edu.vn

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