Peter Navarro, who disobeyed a subpoena pertaining to the congressional inquiry into the US Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to four months in prison on Thursday for contempt of Congress.
In September, Navarro was found guilty on two counts of contempt of Congress for disobeying a subpoena issued by the House Select Committee looking into the attack, according to CNN.
Prosecutors had requested that US District Judge Amit Mehta sentence Navarro to six months on each offence, running concurrently, and penalise him $200,000. Each count caries a statutory minimum sentence of one month in prison.
They claimed that Navarro’s refusal to abide by the subpoenas was similar to the actions of some of the rioters, and they informed the judge last week that a sentence of one month each for the two counts “is insufficient to account for, punish, and deter the Defendant’s criminal offences.”
“The Defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress’s investigation,” prosecutors wrote. “The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.”
The conviction and sentencing of Navarro constitute yet another significant win for the now-dissolved House January 6 committee in its attempts to have the Justice Department prosecute those who declined to assist with its investigation.
Steve Bannon, a former Trump advisor, was found guilty in 2022 of two charges of contempt and subsequently given a four-month prison sentence. Right now, Bannon’s case is being appealed.
