WASHINGTON (AP) — A Trump White Home official convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol is about to be sentenced Thursday.
Prosecutors are asking a decide to condemn Peter Navarro to 6 months behind bars and impose a $200,000 high quality. He was the second Trump aide to face contempt of Congress prices.
Navarro was discovered responsible of defying a subpoena for paperwork and a deposition from the Home Jan. 6 committee. Navarro served as a White Home commerce adviser underneath then-President Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud within the 2020 election he misplaced.
Navarro has vowed to enchantment the decision, saying he couldn’t cooperate with the committee as a result of Trump had invoked government privilege. A decide barred him from making that argument at trial, nonetheless, discovering that he didn’t present Trump had really invoked it.
Justice Division prosecutors say Navarro tried to “conceal behind claims of privilege” even earlier than he knew precisely what the committee needed, exhibiting a “disdain” for the committee that ought to warrant an extended sentence.
Protection attorneys, alternatively, stated Trump did declare executive privilege, placing Navarro in an “untenable place,” and the previous adviser needs to be sentenced to probation and a $100 high quality.
Navarro was the second Trump aide to face contempt of Congress prices. Former White Home adviser Steve Bannon was convicted of two counts and was sentenced to four months behind bars, although he has been free whereas interesting his conviction.
Navarro’s sentencing comes after a decide rejected his bid for a brand new trial. His attorneys had argued that jurors might have been improperly influenced by political protesters outdoors the courthouse after they took a break from deliberations. Shortly after their break, the jury discovered him responsible of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress.
However U.S. District Choose Amit Mehta discovered that Navarro did not present that the eight-minute break had any impact on the September verdict. No protest was underway and nobody approached the jury — they solely interacted with one another and the court docket officer assigned to accompany them, he discovered.
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