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Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday for contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee and is reportedly in custody pending a court appearance.
Navarro has been charged with two counts of contempt, one for failing to appear for a deposition before the committee and one for failing to produce documents. The former Trump trade adviser was approached by an FBI agent arrested while trying to board a flight to Nashville ahead of his court appearance in Washington, D.C. Friday afternoon for the charges.
Navarro told the court the FBI agent approached him and told him he could not contact anyone as he arrested Navarro.
‘Who are these people? This is not America,’ Navarro said. ‘I was a distinguished public servant for four years!’
During the hearing he insisted the Jan. 6 committee was a ‘sham committee’ and prosecutors were ‘playing hardball’ and ‘despicable.’
Late last month Navarro launched legal action against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the committee, claiming that they have no legal right to hold him in contempt of Congress for refusing to give evidence.
The Justice Department noted that each charge has a minimum of 30 days and maximum of one year jail time, as well as a fine of up to $100,000.
Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro was indicted by a federal grand jury Friday for contempt of Congress for failing to comply with a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee and is reportedly in custody pending a court appearance
Navarro is the second Trump trade adviser to be indicted after Steve Bannon.
The House last month voted to forward the case to the Department of Justice.
But in an 88-page legal filing shared with DailyMail.com, Navarro argues that President Joe Biden had no authority to waive former President Donald Trump‘s executive privilege or his former adviser’s ‘testimonial immunity.’
The committee countered that many of the topics it wanted to discuss with him he had already written about in great length in his book.
And he said the courts must intervene to protect the separation of powers, and ensure that lawmakers were not getting into matters of justice.
‘Repeated abuses by partisans and political score settlers like those on the Committee have institutionalized a partisan weaponization of Congress’ investigatory powers that now threatens the delicate balance and separation of powers between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of our government,’ he says in a filing to be lodged at the District of Columbia district court.
Navarro is among those of Trump’s closest allies who have refused to give testimony or hand over documents to the January 6 committee, which is investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol building last year.
It issued a 34-page report detailing how he and Dan Scavino, another key aide, were involved in efforts to keep Trump in power after he lost the 2020 election.
Navarro also wrote and circulated a report claiming the election had been stolen.
‘There was a couple of times I walked over to the Oval — both times after I finished a report — and personally handed him one and briefed him on it,’ he told Rolling Stone, adding that Trump then made arrangements to share it more widely.
While other officials have complied with the requests for information from the committee, a handful has refused, insisting that investigators cannot ask them to provide information about confidential conversations with a president.
Former Trump trade adviser Peter Navarro is launching legal action against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the January 6 committee over its investigation
Navarro is seeking a jury trial as he hits back at a contempt of court ruling after he refused to submit to subpoena seeking evidence about the events of January 6, 2021
The 88-page suit also takes aim at members of the House January 6 committee
Last month, the House voted 220 to 203 – mostly along party lines – calling for prosecutions of Navarro, a trade adviser to Trump, and Scavino, former deputy chief of staff.
‘We have two people who are flagrantly, brazenly defying the authority of the House of Representatives of the United States,’ Rep. Jamie Raskin, Democrat of Maryland and a member of the committee, said at the time.
Now Navarro is asking for a jury trial to overturn the subpoena, the report and the contempt of Congress vote on the grounds that lawmakers are acting as a branch of the judiciary.
The House last month voted 220-203 to hold Trump insiders Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress, a referral that will now be sent to the DOJ for possible criminal charges
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani (r) met with the House Jan. 6th Committee on May 20
‘The committee’s members along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a more than five year period have been engaged in a ‘repeatable strategic game’ of ‘gotcha’ and punishment that threatens to reduce the institutions of executive privilege and testimonial immunity to ping pong balls of partisan politics,’ he says.
‘In this strategic ping pong game, whichever party controls both the House of Representatives and White House will effectively weaponize Congress’s investigatory powers in ways designed to: (1) punish political rivals and (2) deny individuals the opportunity to effectively run for political office or serve in government.’
Meanwhile, the committee has been closing in on big names around Trump as it prepares for a series of public hearings.
Former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani was grilled by the Jan. 6th Committee for nine hours recently
The panel had long wanted to bring in Giuliani, who spoke at the Jan. 6th ‘Stop the Steal’ rally in a speech where he called for ‘trial by combat.’ He said at the time he would stake his reputation on being able to find ‘criminality’ in the election.
However, the session had been delayed as the two sides worked out ground rules.
And last month Trump’s daughter spoke to the committee days after her husband Jared Kushner appeared before lawmakers for six hours.
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