U.S. sues Trump aide Peter Navarro for emails sent from private account

Aug. 3 (UPI) -- The Justice Department sued former Trump administration trade advisor Peter Navarro on Wednesday to force him to hand over hundreds of emails he sent from a private account while working at the White House.

Federal prosecutors said in the civil lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that Navarro used at least one non-official email account to send and receive messages that constitute presidential records.

Navarro, who was a member of the Trump administration for its entire tenure, is also accused of wrongfully holding onto those presidential records in violation of the Presidential Records Act, which states presidential records are those created or received by individuals who assist with the president's official duties.

The act stipulates that any such record sent on a "non-official electronic message account" must be forwarded to an official email within 20 days. They must also be handed over to the National Archives and Records Administration upon the completion of a presidential administration.

The Justice Department said it became aware of Navarro's non-official email account from a House select subcommittee investigating the government's response to the coronavirus outbreak.

According the lawsuit, the use of the non-official email account became known when individuals who had received emails from it handed over copies of the correspondence to the subcommittee.

Amid litigation to receive the correspondence from Navarro, it was learned that an estimated 200 to 250 documents sent from that account constitute presidential records.

The Justice Department said it filed the lawsuit after repeated attempts to retrieve the emails without litigation.

Prosecutors sent Navarro a request by email and via the U.S. postal system. They held discussions with his counsel, which proved unsuccessful. And Navarro "has refused to return any presidential records that he retain absent a grant of immunity for the act of returning such documents," the lawsuit states, without stipulating what Navarro was seeking immunity from.

The lawsuit comes as Navarro separately faces two counts of contempt of Congress filed against him in early June for failing to comply with a subpoena issued by the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building.