Justice Dept. Asks For Six-Month Prison Sentence & $200,000 Fine For Trump Ally Peter Navarro For Contempt Of Congress Conviction

The Justice Department is seeking a sentence of six months in prison for Peter Navarro, a former White House advisor during former President Donald Trump’s term in office, after being convicted of criminal contempt of Congress for ignoring a subpoena from the January 6 congressional committee. 

Prosecutors are also seeking a $200,00 fine. Navarro has previously complained that the legal costs of the case have bankrupted him.

Navarro is scheduled to be sentenced on January 25. He was found guilty in September on two counts of contempt of Congress.

In a 20-page sentencing memo, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi said prosecutors sought to punish Navarro for his bad-faith strategy. 

“The defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress’s investigation,” Aloi said in the sentencing memo. “The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.” 

Navarro is one of a few former Trump advisors to face the possibility of imprisonment. Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and a $6,500 fine for defying the January 6 committee. His sentence is currently suspended during the appeal. 

Prosecutors invoked Bannon in Navarro’s charging. “Like Stephen Bannon before him, throughout the pendency of this case, the Defendant has exploited his notoriety — through courthouse press conferences, his books, and through podcasts—to display to the public the reason for his failure to comply with the Committee’s subpoena: a disregard for government processes and the law, and in particular, the work of the Committee.”

Bannon’s lawyers were recently awarded $480,000 in unpaid legal fees.