President Joe Biden's Department of Justice is seeking to put Peter Navarro, an aide to former President Donald Trump, behind bars for six months for each of two counts and want him to pay a fine of $200,000 for defying a subpoena from the House J6 select committee.
A 20-page-long sentencing memo details the argument made by Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi that was filed on Thursday.
"The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law," Aloi wrote in the memo. "For his sustained, deliberate contempt of Congress, the Defendant should be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment for each count—the top end of the applicable United States Sentencing Guidelines’ range—and fined $200,000."
On Sept. 7, 2023, Navarro was found guilty of contempt of Congress by a jury in Washington D.C. after five hours of deliberation. Navarro's lawyer at the time, Stan Woodward, called for a mistrial because of protestors influencing members of the jury when they went outside the courthouse.
During the trial's closing arguments, Woodward said the government did not show any evidence that Navarro willfully ignored the subpoena.
Navarro had stated prior that he was protected from the subpoena and Trump "had invoked Executive Privilege in this matter." The sentencing memo called this a "bad-faith strategy of defiance and contempt behind baseless, unfounded invocations of executive privilege and immunity that could not and would never apply to his situation."
The sentencing memo states, "At no time did the Defendant provide the Committee with any evidence supporting his assertion that the former President had invoked executive privilege over the information the Committee’s subpoena sought from the Defendant."
Navarro cited a press release from Trump as evidence that Navarro would have the privilege to deny the subpoena.
The release reads, “I’m telling Peter Navarro to protect Executive Privilege and not let these unhinged Democrats discredit our great accomplishments.”
Aloi argued in the memo that the release does not constitute evidence as it was "issued well over two months" before the Jan. 6 committee contacted Navarro requesting more information.
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