Navarro is sentenced to 4 months in prison for Stonewalling Congress on January 6

Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to former President Donald J. Trump who helped draw up plans to keep Trump in power after the 2020 election, was sentenced Thursday to four months in prison for seeking a subpoena from the House committee. Representatives investigating the January 2020 US presidential election had defied. August 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.

Mr. Navarro, 74, was found guilty in September of two felony counts of criminal contempt of Congress. The judge overseeing the case, Amit P. Mehta, rejected Mr. Navarro's main defense: that Mr. Trump had personally instructed him not to cooperate with the subpoena, and that he believed he was protected by the privilege of the executive power.

“The words 'executive privilege' are not magical incantations,” Judge Mehta said. “It's just not, it's not a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

In a heated exchange beforehand with Mr. Navarro's lawyers, the judge highlighted Mr. Navarro's decision to ignore the subpoena while other aides to Mr. Trump negotiated whether to comply. “I have great respect for your client and what he has achieved professionally, I do too,” he added. “What makes it all the more disappointing is the way he behaved.”

Mr. Navarro, a Harvard-educated economist and outspoken critic of China, served as a trade adviser to Mr. Trump before turning his focus to the pandemic response. After the 2020 election, however, he increasingly explored ways to undermine the outcome of the race and keep Mr. Trump in power.

Mr. Navarro, along with Stephen K. Bannon, a longtime adviser to Mr. Trump, devised a plan known as the Green Bay Sweep. Under this strategy, they would try to delay the certification of the election by convincing Republican lawmakers to repeatedly challenge the results in several swing states and pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to discredit the outcome. He also sowed doubt about the results of the race, collected examples of alleged irregularities and released a three-part report alleging election fraud as part of what he described as an “immaculate deception.”

These efforts eventually caught the attention of the House of Representatives committee, which sought documents and testimony from Mr. Navarro. He has repeatedly rejected those requests.

After voting to hold Mr. Navarro in contempt, the House referred the matter to the Justice Department, which obtained a grand jury indictment.

Prosecutors, arguing that Mr. Navarro had deliberately obstructed the House committee, recommended Thursday that he pay a $9,500 fine and serve six months in prison.

“He was happy to tell the world what he knew – but not Congress,” they wrote in a condemnation memo last week.

Mr. Navarro's lawyers had asked for six months' probation. His failure to engage with the House committee was essentially a misunderstanding, they argued, adding that Mr. Navarro had honestly believed that Mr. Trump had appealed to executive privilege.

“The only reason why this court is compelled to consider a sentence for Dr. Navarro to deliberate is because of the inability of political opponents to communicate,” they wrote.

In asking for a more lenient sentence, his lawyers said the case revolved around murky and uncertain legal questions about executive privilege and the complex separation of powers between Congress and the White House — questions that Judge Mehta has been asking for months. had difficulty untangling. the lawsuit.

“We are just a pit stop in our journey to understand what executive privilege means and how to invoke it,” Stanley Woodward Jr., a lawyer for Mr. Navarro, said Thursday.

In a contentious exchange with Judge Mehta, Mr. Woodward repeatedly predicted that an appeals court would side with Mr. Navarro on constitutional grounds.

“This case is far from over,” he said.

Mr. Navarro is the second senior Trump aide to face penalties for contempt of Congress in connection with the Jan. 6 committee investigation.

Mr. Bannon, who left the White House in 2017, was convicted in 2022 on nearly identical contempt charges and sentenced to four months in prison. He remains free while his appeal progresses.