Former Donald Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro moved a step closer to his contempt of Congress trial next week after a federal judge in Washington rejected Navarro’s claim that Trump invoked executive privilege that could have legally shielded his adviser’s alleged criminal conduct.
Navarro was charged federally after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee. He refused to appear for a deposition and provide documents.
After Navarro testified at a hearing Monday in an attempt to prove his privilege claim, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Wednesday rejected it ahead of Navarro’s trial set for Sept. 5.
The rejection doesn’t come as a surprise, after the judge called Navarro’s argument “weak sauce,” given the former Trump official’s lack of sufficient evidence put forth to support his claim that Trump invoked privilege. Navarro would have needed to make a specific showing that Trump actually invoked the privilege but Navarro failed to do so, the judge reasoned.
Politico reported that the Jan. 6 committee “wanted to question Navarro about his work with Trump ally Steve Bannon on a strategy for members of Congress to mount numerous and lengthy objections to Joe Biden’s electoral votes during the Jan. 6, 2021, session of Congress.” Jury selection in Navarro’s trial is slated to begin Tuesday.
Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro," a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined MS NOW, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.
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