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When Congress’ bipartisan Jan. 6 committee sent Peter Navarro a subpoena four years ago, no one was surprised. After all, Navarro was a key insider in the Trump White House, he had important information to share with investigators and he was expected to cooperate with the official probe.
Navarro nevertheless refused to comply. Soon after, congressional leaders — who didn’t want their subpoenas to be seen as optional invitations — voted to hold Navarro in contempt and referred the matter to the Justice Department. Two months later, he was charged.
Following his trial and brief jury deliberations, Navarro was ultimately convicted and sentenced to four months in prison after the Supreme Court declined to keep him free while he pressed his appeal.
The presidential adviser is nevertheless still fighting to undo his conviction, and as of a year ago, Trump’s DOJ officially endorsed his effort.
It didn’t work. On Tuesday morning, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia issued a 37-page ruling, unanimously upholding Navarro’s criminal conviction.
At the heart of Navarro’s legal defense was his interpretation of “executive privilege,” though as U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta tried to explain during the sentencing proceedings in 2024, the phrase is not a “magical incantation” to get out of a subpoena.
“What I find disappointing is that in all of this, even today, there’s little acknowledgment of what your obligation is as an American — to cooperate with Congress, to provide them with information that they’re seeking,” Mehta said. “Fine, you think it’s a political hatchet job, it’s domestic terrorists running the committee. They had a job to do and you made it harder. It’s really that simple.”
“You are not a victim,” the jurist continued. “You are not the object of a political prosecution, you aren’t. You have received every process you are due.”
Now that an appeals court has come to the same conclusion, Navarro could just accept the outcome and continue to enjoy his job as the president’s top adviser on trade policy, but it’s more likely that he’ll appeal his latest defeat to the Supreme Court. Watch this space.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
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