WASHINGTON — Peter Navarro, a former Trump White House adviser, will be indicted Thursday on criminal charges against Congress, federal prosecutors told a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Congress.
The charge carries a mandatory minimum prison sentence of one month.
Navarro was convicted To the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack on the United States Capitol for Refusing to Testify and Produce Documents on Two Counts in September announced his report It was repealed at the end of 2022 after Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.
Federal prosecutors they are looking for For Navarro, who served six months in federal prison, he said, “Like the rioters in the Capitol, he put politics first, not country, and stonewalled a congressional investigation.” According to prosecutors, Navarro “chose loyalty to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.”
After Trump’s defeat, Navarro helped spread misinformation about the 2020 election, reporting that Trump falsely said it was statistically “impossible” for him to lose the election. In an ominous tweet on December 19, 2020, “it’s going to be wild,” Trump referenced the report and encouraged his supporters to travel to Washington for the “Big Protest” on January 6. what drew them to Washington.
Navarro’s attorney asked for an immediate stay of any sentencing Thursday because of “new issues” presented in the case, including Navarro’s claim that Trump used executive privilege. It was right-wing podcaster and former White House official Steve Bannon was convicted In October 2022, he wants a four-month prison sentence on a similar contempt charge, but he wants to cancel the verdict and has never served yet.
“Like Stephen Bannon before him, throughout the pendency of this case, the Defendant has used his notoriety through courthouse press conferences, books and podcasts to demonstrate to the public why he did not comply with the Committee’s subpoena: a disregard for government processes and the law, particularly the Committee’s work,” the federal prosecutors wrote in the sentencing letter. “The defendant wrote a book on the subject of the Committee’s subpoena. He was happy to tell the world what he knew — but not to Congress.”
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta will sentence Navarro at a hearing scheduled for 10 a.m.