Trump’s China-hawk ex-adviser Peter Navarro sentenced for four months

Washington: Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to co-operate with a congressional investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, has been sentenced to four months behind bars.

He was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges, after former adviser Steve Bannon, who also received a four-month sentence but is free pending appeal.

Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro arrives at US Federal Courthouse in Washington.Credit: AP

Navarro was found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House of Representatives January 6 committee. He served as a White House trade adviser under then-president Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has vowed to appeal the verdict, saying he couldn’t co-operate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. A judge barred him from making that argument at trial, however, finding that he didn’t show Trump had actually invoked it.

Navarro said in court before his sentencing on Thursday (US time) that the House committee investigating the January 6 attack had led him to believe that it accepted his invocation of executive privilege.

“Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch,” he told the judge.

Steve Bannon appears in Manhattan Supreme Court in 2023.Credit: AP

The judge told Navarro that it took “chutzpah” for him to assert that he accepted responsibility for his actions while also suggesting that his prosecution was politically motivated. “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution,” the judge said. “These are circumstances of your own making.”

Navarro’s lawyers had advised him not to address the judge, but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express disappointment in him. Responding to a question about why he didn’t initially seek a lawyer’s counsel, he told the judge, “I didn’t know what to do, sir.”

The judge is allowing Navarro’s defence to submit a written brief on the question of allowing him to remain free pending appeal.

Justice Department prosecutors said Navarro tried to “hide behind claims of privilege” even before he knew what the committee wanted, showing a “disdain” for the committee that should warrant a longer sentence. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to six months behind bars and impose a $US200,000 fine.

Defence attorneys said Trump did claim executive privilege, putting Navarro in an “untenable position,” and they asked for a sentence of probation and a $US100 fine.

Bannon, who also made executive-privilege arguments, was convicted of two counts.

Navarro’s sentencing comes after a judge rejected his bid for a new trial. His attorneys had argued that jurors may have been improperly influenced by political protesters outside the courthouse when they took a break from deliberations.

Shortly after their break, the jurors found Navarro guilty of two misdemeanour counts of contempt of Congress.

But US District Judge Amit Mehta found that Navarro didn’t show that the eight-minute break had any effect on the September verdict. He found no protest was underway and no one approached the jurors — they interacted only with each other and the court officer assigned to accompany them.

Navarro, a Harvard-trained economist and author of several books on US-China trade policies, served as one of the most anti-China voices in Trump’s administration.

In his time in that role, he urged Trump to not back down in his conflict with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

AP

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