Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro will be sentenced on Thursday for defying a congressional subpoena to cooperate with the House select committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Navarro was convicted in September on one count of contempt of Congress over his refusal to appear for a deposition in front of the committee, and on a second count for refusing to produce documents.
He is the second Trump adviser to be convicted for refusing to cooperate with the Jan. 6 panel, after Steve Bannon was found guilty in July of defying a Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
Bannon was subsequently sentenced to four months in prison, pending an appeal.
Prosecutors have asked for Navarro, who under Trump was director of the White House Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, to be sentenced to six months behind bars.
“The mandatory minimum sentence of one month in prison is insufficient to account for, punish, and deter the Defendant’s criminal offense,” prosecutors wrote last week. “For each Count, the Court should instead impose a sentence of six months’ imprisonment — the top end of the applicable Guidelines’ advisory sentencing range — and fine the Defendant $100,000.”
In this Sept. 7, 2023 file photo, Peter Navarro, an advisor to former U.S. President Donald Trump, speaks to reporters as he arrives at the E. Barrett Prettyman Courthouse in Washington.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images, FILE
In their memo, prosecutors said the six-month sentence for each count could be served concurrently.
Navarro’s attorneys requested the court sentence him to no more than six months and to pay a fine of $100 for each count.
The Jan. 6 committee’s 17-month probe, which concluded with the release of its final report in December 2022, determined there was a “multi-part conspiracy to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 Presidential election.” Among the panel’s 11 recommendations were that Congress affirm the way electoral votes are certified; that it bolster efforts to combat violent extremism and threats to election workers; and that it improve the effectiveness of the Capitol Police.
