For refusing to cooperate with the investigation into last year’s US Capitol riot, Peter Navarro, an ex-top White House aide, has been charged with contempt of Congress.
After ignoring a formal summons from the congressional hearing investigating the attack, Peter Navarro became the second Trump advisor to be detained.
Peter Navarro, 72, accused attorneys and the FBI of wrongdoing in court.
His indictment comes only a week before the committee’s televised hearings on the investigation begin.
More than 1,000 witnesses have been examined by the US House of Representatives panel, which is made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans.
Peter Navarro Has Accused Attorneys And The FBI
Last November, former President Donald Trump’s senior strategist, Steve Bannon, was charged with contempt of Congress after he, too, disobeyed a subpoena.
Peter Navarro has been accused of refusing to testify or deliver papers to a congressional committee investigating the disturbance at the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
He did not file an appeal at his appearance on Friday in Washington, DC, as a China hawk who counseled Mr. Trump on trade matters and also participated on the Covid task committee.
Mr. Navarro may face a sentence of up to 2 years in prison or a fine. He denounced how he was apprehended by FBI agents at a Washington airport earlier in the day as he was boarding a trip to Nashville, Tennessee.
Mr. Trump has advised his former aides not to cooperate with the Democratic-led inquiry, which he believes is political. Mr. Navarro has contended that the legal notion of executive privilege shielded his discussions with the former president.
Critics of the probe have pointed out that despite being held in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with an investigation in 2012, former US Attorney General Eric Holder was not punished criminally.
In that instance, then-President Barack Obama, a Democrat, had invoked executive privilege.
