Federal prosecutors requested six months of jail time for Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Donald Trump, for contempt of Congress, saying he prioritized allegiance to the former president over cooperating with a House investigation of the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the Capitol building.
In September, Navarro, 74, was convicted of two contempt charges for refusing to produce documents or testify in response to a February 2022 subpoena issued by the House.
According to The Washington Post, prosecutors argued in the 20-page sentencing request that Navarro's "bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt" called for severe punishment. The former trade and pandemic adviser "put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress's investigation" even after learning his actions would not be excused by his claim of executive privilege, prosecutors said.
"The rioters who overran the Capitol on January 6, 2021, did not just attack a building — they assaulted the rule of law upon which this country was built and through which it endures," Assistant U.S. Attorneys Elizabeth Aloi and John Crabb Jr. wrote. "By flouting the Committee's subpoena and its authority to investigate that assault, the Defendant exacerbated that assault, following the attack on Congress with his rejection of its authority."
Prosecutors previously asked for a six-month sentence for longtime Trump political adviser Stephen K. Bannon, who was convicted and sentenced to four months in prison in October 2022. The penalty has been put on hold while an appeal plays out.
The Post reported that Navarro or Bannon could become the first person imprisoned for defying a congressional subpoena in more than 50 years under a little-used statute that carries a punishment of up to one year of incarceration.
U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta scheduled Navarro's sentencing for Jan. 25.
Pointing to the judge's recognition that Navarro sincerely believed Trump invoked executive privilege, Navarro's attorney's requested probation instead of jail time. They argued he should not be put in the "untenable position" of possible imprisonment because of "antiquated, questionable precedent" for similar conduct as past presidential advisers who were not jailed.
"Dr. Navarro's trial and conviction involves a series of firsts: the first time an incumbent President waived the executive privilege of a former President; the first time a senior presidential advisor was charged with contempt of congress by the Justice Department, let alone the Justice Department of a political rival," attorneys John S. Irving, John P. Rowley III and Stanley E. Woodward III wrote. "History is replete," they said, "with instances of defying congressional subpoenas, and Dr. Navarro's sentence should not be disproportionate from those similarly situated individuals."