(Washington) – Peter Navarro, a member of Donald Trump’s White House cabinet, was indicted in contempt of Congress Thursday after he was accused of refusing to cooperate in an investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack against the U.S. Capitol.
The ruling followed a brief trial of Mr. Navarro, who served as a White House business adviser under President Donald Trump and later promoted Republican baseless allegations of massive voter fraud in the 2020 election, which he lost.
Navarro was the second Trump aide to face charges of contempt of Congress, after former White House adviser Steve Bannon. He was found guilty of two counts and sentenced to four months’ imprisonment, although he is free pending his appeal.
Prosecutors say Peter Navarro acted as if he was “above the law” when he challenged a subpoena to obtain documents and a statement from the House committee looking into the January 6 events. He was convicted of two counts of contempt of Congress, both of which carry a penalty of up to one year in prison.
The sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 12.
A defense attorney argued that Mr. Navarro did not ignore the congressional subpoena, but instead asked the committee members to contact Mr. Trump to find out which documents might be under executive privilege, which they did not.
US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Mr. Navarro’s executive privilege argument was not a defense to the charges.
Prosecutors said that many of the documents requested by the committee were already publicly available, and that Mr. Navarro should have turned in what he could and reported any questions or documents deemed protected by executive privilege.
Donald Trump faces federal indictment in Washington, D.C., and indictment from the state of Georgia for his efforts to reverse his loss in the 2020 election to Joe Biden. He denied any wrongdoing and said he acted within the law.
The House committee assigned to investigate January 6 ended its work in January, after issuing a final report that Trump was criminally involved in and failed to do so in a “multipart conspiracy” to overturn the legal results of the 2020 election. Work to prevent a mob of his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
