WASHINGTON -- Trump White House official Peter Navarro, who was convicted of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with a congressional investigation into the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, was sentenced Thursday to four months behind bars.
He was the second Trump aide convicted of contempt of Congress charges. Former White House adviser Steve Bannon previously received a four-month sentence but is free pending appeal.
Navarro was found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House Jan. 6 committee. He served as a White House trade adviser under then-President Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican's claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.
Judges in multiple states dismissed state and federal lawsuits filed by Trump's legal team that alleged widespread voting improprieties in the 2020 election while federal and state election security experts found no credible evidence of computer fraud in the election. In early December 2020, former Attorney General William Barr said that the Justice Department did not uncover any evidence of widespread voter fraud.
U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta told Navarro that it took "chutzpah" for him to assert that he accepted responsibility for his actions while also suggesting that his prosecution was politically motivated.
"You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution," the judge said. "These are circumstances of your own making."
Navarro's attorneys filed a notice that he is appealing his conviction and sentence.
Navarro has said he couldn't cooperate with the committee because Trump had invoked executive privilege. The judge barred him from making that argument at trial, however, finding that he didn't show Trump had actually invoked it.
Navarro said in court before his sentencing Thursday that the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot had led him to believe that it accepted his invocation of executive privilege.
"Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch," he told the judge.
Mehta said that asserting executive privilege is not "magic dust to avoid a duty."
"It's not a get-out-of-jail-free card," the judge added.
A federal prosecutor, John Crabb Jr., told the judge that the Justice Department enforces the law "without fear, favor or political influence."
"This is a righteous prosecution," Crabb said.
More than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. More than 100 police officers were injured during clashes with the mob of Trump supporters who disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden's victory over Trump.
The House committee spent 18 months investigating the riot, interviewing over 1,000 witnesses, holding 10 hearings and obtaining more than 1 million pages of documents. In its final report, the panel ultimately concluded that Trump criminally engaged in a "multi-part conspiracy" to overturn the election results and failed to act to stop his supporters from storming the Capitol.
U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat who chaired the House committee, said Navarro abused the public trust in the days leading up to the Jan. 6 riot and again when he defied the subpoena to answer questions about it.
"Last summer's guilty verdict and today's sentence are the consequence of Mr. Navarro's stubborn insistence that his short stint in the Executive Branch somehow put him above the law," Thompson said in a statement.
Navarro's lawyers had advised him not to address the judge on Thursday, but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express disappointment in him. Responding to a question about why he didn't initially seek a lawyer's counsel, he told the judge, "I didn't know what to do, sir."
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro talks to the media as he arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro talks to the media as he arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro talks to the media as he arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro talks to the media as he arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro arrives at U.S. Federal Courthouse in Washington, Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)