Federal prosecutors are seeking a six-month prison sentence for ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress last year after defying a subpoena from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol attack.
Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo late Thursday that Navarro should receive a sentence at the high end of the guidelines because he “thumbed his nose at Congressional authority” and used a “bad-faith strategy” to evade the committee’s summons.
“The Defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress’s investigation,” prosecutors wrote. “The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.”
Navarro faced two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee, the first pertaining to his failure to produce documents and the second for failing to appear for a deposition.
The Justice Department also recommended a six-month sentence for ex-White House adviser Steve Bannon, who was also convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress last year. Bannon was ultimately sentenced to four months in prison, which he has not yet served because a judge said he could remain free pending appeal.
In his own sentencing memo, Navarro’s counsel argued that the defense was “hamstrung” by “antiquated precedent” and the “open question” of whether a president can direct his subordinates not to testify before Congress, or executive privilege.
“How should the Court sentence a senior advisor who was convicted for acting in a
way that comported with the behaviors of several presidential advisors from presidential
administrations throughout history?” Navarro’s lawyers wrote.
Throughout his September trial, Navarro’s lawyers and the government tiptoed around the issue of executive privilege after U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta barred defense attorneys from using it to prove the ex-Trump adviser’s innocence. The judge previously found that Navarro’s counsel failed to prove the former president invoked said privilege.
Navarro requested a new trial and the dismissal of his conviction after claiming that the jury was prejudiced during a lunch break by protesters outside the courthouse, but Mehta rejected that request earlier this week. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 25.
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