Former Trump advisor Navarro sentenced to four months in prison

WASHINGTON (AFP): Peter Navarro, a White House trade advisor to former president Donald Trump, was sentenced to four months in prison on Thursday for refusing to testify before the congressional panel that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol.

Navarro, 74, a Harvard-educated economist, was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress by a federal jury in Washington in September after a two-day trial.

US District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced him to four months in prison — two months less than prosecutors had requested — and ordered him to pay a fine of $9,500.

“You are not a victim,” The Washington Post quoted Mehta as saying at Navarro’s sentencing hearing. “You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are circumstances of your own making.”

Navarro had refused to appear for a deposition before the House of Representatives committee that investigated the January 6 attack on Congress by Trump supporters and declined to supply documents to the panel.

Navarro is the second close Trump ally to be convicted of contempt of Congress for defying subpoenas from the House committee.

Steve Bannon, one of the masterminds behind Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and victory, was also found guilty of contempt of Congress.

Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison but remains free pending an appeal. Navarro is also expected to appeal.

Trump is scheduled to go on trial in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to overturn the results of the November 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden.

The Republican ex-president, the clear favorite to becoming his party’s 2024 White House nominee, faces similar charges in a separate case in the southern state of Georgia.

In a book, Navarro described creating a plan after the election called the “Green Bay sweep,” a reference to American football, to reverse Biden’s victory by blocking confirmation in the House.

He wrote that Trump was “on board with the strategy.”

Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows also refused to appear before the House committee that investigated the Capitol attack but has not been charged with contempt of Congress.

Meadows claimed that as a former top advisor to the president he had immunity from being compelled to testify to the committee — a defense unsuccessfully advanced by Navarro and Bannon.

Trump, 77, was impeached for a second time by the House after the Capitol riot — he was charged with inciting an insurrection — but was acquitted by the Senate.