Peter Navarro refused to show over paperwork or present a deposition to the January 6 Home choose committee.
A federal jury on Thursday discovered Peter Navarro, who served as a commerce adviser to former U.S. President Donald Trump, responsible of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the congressional panel that probed the January 6, 2021 rebellion.
Regardless of a February 2022 subpoena from the Home Choose Committee to Examine the January sixth Assault on the USA Capitol, Navarro declined to show over paperwork or present up for a deposition, ensuing within the two contempt convictions.
Every depend carries a most sentence of 1 12 months in jail and a positive of as much as $100,000. Navarro intends to attraction the unanimous verdict — which got here after a two-day trial with testimony from three committee staffers and 4 hours of deliberation, according to Politico.
Advocacy teams and authorized consultants welcomed the event on social media, with the pro-democracy group Frequent Trigger saying, “Maintain everybody accountable.”
Los Angeles Occasions senior authorized affairs columnist Harry Litman said: “Open and shut case actually. And a righteous one. He simply utterly thumbed his nostril on the committee and his authorized obligations.”
Noah Bookbinder, president of Residents for Duty and Ethics in Washington (CREW), declared that “in an administration outlined by lawlessness, Peter Navarro was one of the lawless — routinely violating the Hatch Act and pushing bogus claims that the 2020 election was stolen. It’s constructive that he was convicted of contempt of Congress.”
As The Hill reported:
Simply after the decision was learn, Navarro legal professional Stan Woodward referred to as for a mistrial, claiming the jurors [who] went exterior throughout their break have been uncovered to protestors toting January 6-related indicators. Authorities prosecutors stated they didn’t see any protestors exterior the exit the jurors purportedly used.
U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta stated he wouldn’t rule on the mistrial request till the protection offered him video or picture proof of such a state of affairs, which they stated they have been accumulating.
Mehta has scheduled Navarro’s sentencing for January 12, 2024.
Navarro is the second aide of Trump — who’s the front-runner for the GOP’s 2024 presidential nomination, despite his varied authorized points — to be convicted of contempt of Congress, after Steve Bannon.
Final 12 months, Bannon was additionally found responsible of two counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6 panel. The ex-president’s former chief strategist was sentenced to 4 months in jail however stays free throughout the appeals course of.
