Navarro Played Lawyer With Jan 6 Committee. But His Sentence Is Very Real.

(Picture by Drew Angerer/Getty Photos)

Trump econ crank Peter Navarro reached the discover out this morning in Decide Amit Mehta’s courtroom the place he was sentenced to 4 months for contempt of Congress.

Again in 2021, Navarro blew off congressional subpoenas referring to his work on coronavirus, which saddled the federal government with tens of tens of millions of doses of hydroxychloroquine, citing a public exhortation by his former boss to “shield government privilege and never let these unhinged Democrats discredit our nice accomplishments.”

In 2022, the January 6 Committee subpoenaed him, about his efforts to dam congressional certification of President Biden’s electoral school win. Navarro had publicly bragged a couple of scheme cooked up with Steve Bannon to disrupt Congress, and even wrote about it in a guide the place he dubbed the plot “The Greenbay Sweep.” Nonetheless, he advised the Committee to pound sand, in a hilariously snotty letter penned with out the help of counsel.

“Please be suggested that President Trump has invoked Govt Privilege on this matter; and it’s neither my privilege to waive or Joseph Biden’s privilege to waive,” he wrote on March 1, 2022. “Accordingly, my arms are tied. Your greatest plan of action is to immediately negotiate with President Trump and his attorneys concerning any and all issues associated to this matter.”

Even after he was indicted, Navarro vowed to proceed representing himself, however ultimately the Trump PAC took pity and glued him up with MAGAworld lawyer Stan Woodward. And certainly, even right this moment Navarro defended his resolution to tackle Congress professional se.

“I’m a Harvard-educated gentleman, however the studying curve once they come at you with the largest legislation agency on the earth may be very, very steep,” he complained to the courtroom.

Within the occasion, Navarro by no means produced proof of any such invocation of government privilege — to the extent that Trump might even assert privilege over Navarro’s extracurricular cahootsing with Bannon, who has been out of presidency since 2017. And anyway, the suitable strategy to assert government privilege was to indicate up and assert it like nearly each different White Home worker did. Furthermore, as Decide Mehta famous this morning, Navarro’s subpoena arrived three months after Bannon acquired indicted for refusing to conform together with his personal summons. So Navarro had ample discover that giving Congress the finger might be dangerous to your well being.

The courtroom additionally had harsh phrases for Navarro’s authorized group, who claimed a downward departure within the sentencing tips on the speculation that their consumer had accepted duty by … forcing the federal government to take him to trial after which claiming in his sentencing memo that he deserved a lightweight sentence due to undue political affect on his case.

Final week, Woodward additionally moved to unseal paperwork within the replevin motion the federal government to file after Navarro refused to return official paperwork situated on his encrypted Proton Mail account. On this column, I speculated that Woodward was looking for to indicate Decide Mehta that his consumer was so courageous and sincere for turning over these paperwork (after being threatened with contempt). However, as impartial journalist Marcie Wheeler identified, Woodward was actally after a cherrypicked quote suggesting that maybe a few of the paperwork at problem have been lined by privilege and so … underpants gnomes?

Right here’s his supposed smoking gun from the federal government’s filings within the replevin motion:

Nevertheless, the US has not taken the place that each motion that Defendant took in reference to the 2020 Presidential Election was completed in his private, and never official, capability; nor has the US taken the place that any communications associated to the 2020 Presidential Election are usually not Presidential data.

From this, he infers the federal government’s “true motive – the prosecution of a senior presidential advisor of a chief political opponent.”

He needn’t have bothered. In reality, the courtroom was appalled by Navarro’s public statements, echoed by his legal professionals of their pleadings, suggesting that the prosecution was being led by Biden and former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And so, in any case this rigamarole, Navarro wound up precisely the place Bannon is — sentenced to 4 months incarceration and hoping that he can keep out of jail lengthy sufficient for Trump to get again within the White Home and pardon him.

Inside minutes, Navarro had observed his enchantment to the DC Circuit. Delay, delay, delay. And if that doesn’t work, possibly he can get that man Ron Vara to serve his sentence for him.

US v. Navarro [Civil Docket via Court Listener]US v. Navarro [Criminal Docket via Court Listener]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore the place she writes the Legislation and Chaos Substack.