Federal prosecutors seek 6-month sentence for ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro

Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Federal prosecutors asked the court Thursday night to jail former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro for six months after being convicted of defying subpoenas ordering he testify in the House select committee's investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection attempt.

The Justice Department made its request Thursday in a filing that added Navarro should also be sentenced to pay a $200,000 fine.

"The defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress' investigation," the Justice Department said in the filing. "The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law."

Navarro, 74, was twice subpoenaed in 2022 by the House select committee for documents and to give testimony about the causes of the Jan. 6 attack on Congress, but he defied both stating he was granted executive privilege by Trump, despite President Joe Biden having waived his right to immunity.

After the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress in April, a grand jury indicted him on two counts in June, with a federal jury convicting him in September.

He is to be sentenced Jan. 25.

In its sentencing memo on Thursday, prosecutors asked for the stiff penalty on the grounds that Navarro defied the subpoenas while knowing that his immunity argument was groundless.

"When Peter K. Navarro was served with a subpoena form the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, he thumbed his nose at Congressional authority and refused to comply -- even before knowing what information the committee sought," the Justice Department said.

"He cloaked his bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt behind baseless, unfounded invocations of executive privilege and immunity that could not and would never apply to his situation."

"The defendant's bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt deserves severe punishment," the justice department concluded.

In its sentencing memo, Navarro's counsel asked the court to not sentence their client to more than six months' probation and a fine of $100,000.

Navarro is the second Trump adviser after right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon was convicted of defying a House select committee and sentenced to four months in prison in October 2021.