Friday, January 26, 2024 – Former Trump White House Advisor, Peter Navarro was sentenced on Thursday, January 25, to four months in jail for contempt of Congress after defying a subpoena related to the congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, US Capitol attack.
Navarro was convicted on two counts of contempt of Congress
in September for not complying with a subpoena from the House select committee
that investigated the attack.
The judge overseeing Navarro’s case said today that the
former Trump adviser’s sentence is of his “own making” as he tore into Navarro
for claiming that his prosecution was politically motivated.
“I guess what bothers me ultimately is that here we are
after a year and a half plus and you still want to suggest to me that this is a
political prosecution. You want me to believe this is a political prosecution,”
US District Judge Amit Mehta said during the sentencing hearing, raising his
voice.
“When the evidence is completely to the contrary. You are
not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are the
circumstances of your own making.” the judge added
Judge Mehta also fined Navarro $9,500.
Navarro quickly appealed the case on Thursday to the DC
Circuit Court of Appeals. His attorneys say they plan to file an appeal to
raise issues related to his claim that he didn’t comply with the subpoena
because Trump had invoked executive privilege.
Each count carries a mandatory minimum sentence of one month
in prison, but prosecutors had asked Mehta to sentence Navarro to six months
for each count running concurrently and fine him $200,000.
Prosecutors told the judge last week that a sentence of one
month apiece for the two counts “is insufficient to account for, punish, and
deter the Defendant’s criminal offenses,” arguing that Navarro’s decision to
not comply with the subpoenas was akin to the conduct of some of the people who
participated in the riot.
“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.”
Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was also convicted in 2022
on two contempt counts and later sentenced to four months in prison. Bannon’s
case is currently on appeal.
Navarro’s attorneys are seeking a sentence of no more than
six months of probation for each count, and they asked Mehta last week to pause
the sentence he imposes as they appeal the conviction.
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