Peter Navarro indictment: Former Trump aide indicted for defying Jan. 6 panel

Navarro is former President Donald Trump’s second aide to be charged with contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6, 2021, investigation. His arrest comes months after the indictment of former White Home adviser Steve Bannon.

Navarro, 72, was charged with one contempt depend for failing to seem for a deposition earlier than the Home committee. The second cost is for failing to provide paperwork the committee requested. He was taken into federal custody Friday morning and was anticipated to seem in federal courtroom in Washington later within the afternoon.

The indictment underscores that the Justice Division is continuous to pursue felony costs towards Trump associates who’ve tried to impede or stonewall the work of congressional investigators inspecting probably the most vital assault on U.S. democracy in many years.

The Justice Division and Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland have confronted stress to maneuver extra rapidly to determine whether or not to prosecute different Trump aides who’ve equally defied subpoenas from the Home panel.

The indictment alleges that Navarro, when summoned to seem earlier than the committee for a deposition, refused to take action and as an alternative advised the panel that as a result of Trump had invoked government privilege, “my palms are tied.”

After committee employees advised him they believed there have been matters he may talk about with out elevating any government privilege issues, Navarro once more refused, directing the committee to barter instantly with attorneys for Trump, based on the indictment. The committee went forward with its scheduled deposition on March 2, however Navarro didn’t attend.

7 hours, 700 arrests, 1 yr later: The Jan. 6 Capitol assault, by the numbers

The indictment got here days after Navarro revealed in a courtroom submitting that he additionally had been subpoenaed to seem earlier than a grand jury this week as a part of the Justice Division’s sprawling probe into the lethal rebel on the U.S. Capitol.

Navarro, who was a commerce adviser to Trump, stated he was served the subpoena by the FBI at his Washington, D.C., house final week. The subpoena was the primary recognized occasion of prosecutors looking for testimony from somebody who labored within the Trump White Home as they examine the assault.

Navarro made the case in his lawsuit Tuesday that the Home choose committee investigating the assault is illegal and due to this fact a subpoena it issued to him in February is unenforceable underneath regulation.

He filed the swimsuit towards members of the committee, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and the U.S. lawyer in Washington, Matthew M. Graves, whose workplace is now dealing with the felony case towards him.

In an interview with The Related Press this week, Navarro stated the aim of his lawsuit is way broader than the subpoenas themselves, a part of an effort to have “the Supreme Court docket handle quite a lot of points which have include the weaponization of Congress’ investigatory powers” since Trump entered workplace.

Members of the choose committee sought testimony from Navarro about his public efforts to assist Trump overturn the 2020 presidential election, together with a name attempting to steer state legislators to hitch their efforts.

The previous economics professor was one of many White Home staffers who promoted Trump’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud. Trump, in flip, promoted a prolonged report Navarro launched in December 2020, which Navarro falsely claimed contained proof of the alleged misconduct and election fraud “greater than ample” to swing victory to his former boss.

Navarro has refused to cooperate with the committee, and he and fellow Trump adviser Dan Scavino have been present in contempt of Congress in April.

Members of the committee made their case on the time that Scavino and Navarro have been amongst only a handful of people that had rebuffed the committee’s requests and subpoenas for data. The Justice Division has not but moved ahead with costs towards Scavino or Meadows, who initially cooperated with the committee, turning over greater than 2,000 textual content messages despatched and acquired within the days main as much as and of the assault. However in December, Meadows ceased cooperation. Federal prosecutors haven’t but indicated whether or not he too will likely be charged.

Regardless of the opposition from a number of Trump allies, the Jan. 6 panel, comprised of seven Democrats and two Republicans, has managed to interview greater than 1,000 witnesses in regards to the rebel up to now 11 months and is now getting ready for a sequence of public hearings to start subsequent week. Lawmakers on the panel hope the half-dozen hearings will likely be a high-profile airing of the causes and penalties of the home assault on the U.S. authorities.