Ex-Trump advisor found guilty of contempt of Congress

Peter Navarro, who used to give advice to Donald Trump about trading, has been punished with four months in jail for disrespecting Congress.

Navarro was found guilty in September for not following a subpoena from a House committee that was looking into claims of trying to change the 2020 election results.

Federal prosecutors said he picked Trump over the law. They said he should get a “harsh punishment”.

Navarro, who is 74 years old, could have gone to prison for up to one year for each of the two charges of disobeying the court.

In a letter last month, prosecutors said that Navarro, “like the people who rioted at the Capitol, cared more about politics than the country, and refused to help Congress investigate. ”

In February 2022, a committee from the US House of Representatives gave him a subpoena.

But he did not give any of the asked for emails or papers or show up to answer questions in front of the Democratic-led group.

He was proven to be guilty by the 12 people on the jury after they talked about it for four hours. This happened after a trial in Washington DC that lasted two days.

Navarro’s lawyers have asked the judge to change his guilty verdict. They say he was not part of the group that attacked the government building, and should only have to do six months of probation.

His lawyers asked for a new trial because they said the jurors left the courthouse and saw protestors while they were making their decision.

However, Judge Amit Mehta refused to grant a new trial request last week.

In his book from 2021, called In Trump Time, Navarro said he was the person who came up with a plan to question the 2020 election results. He believed there was a lot of cheating in the voting process.

The Republicans in Congress wanted to wait before confirming that President Joe Biden won the election.

Navarro named this plan the Green Bay Sweep, referencing a play in American football.

The House committee said Navarro’s claims of a lot of ballot cheating were proven to be untrue by state and local officials.

When the committee asked Navarro, he said that Mr. Trump told him to use executive privilege. This is a rule that lets some White House messages be kept secret.

The judge said there was no proof that Mr. Trump asked for it, or that he could use his power to let Navarro ignore the committee’s orders.

His situation is similar to another Trump associate who was found guilty of disobeying the 6 January committee.

Steve Bannon, who used to work for Donald Trump’s election campaign, was found guilty of not obeying a legal order from the House committee in July 2022.

Bannon was given a four-month jail sentence, but he is still out of jail while his lawyers appeal the decision.