Trump ally Peter Navarro ‘ready to go to jail’ to fight conviction

Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro has vowed he’s ‘ready to go to jail’ to fight his contempt of Congress conviction for refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the headquarters of the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.

Navarro, who served as a business adviser to former President Donald Trump and helped promote allegations that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, was found guilty of two counts of contempt for denying a deposition request to the House and a subpoena to deliver documents.

He is the second senior Trump adviser found guilty of contempt related to the Jan. 6 inquiry in the House of Representatives. Steve Bannon, the former president’s strategist, was also convicted of two criminal charges in July 2022 and sentenced to four months in prison.

Speaking with reporters after Thursday’s verdict, Navarro maintained he was innocent, saying his defense team had come to court expecting a guilty verdict.

“The day Judge (Amit) Mehta ruled that I could not use executive privilege as a defense in this case, the die was cast,” Navarro said. “It was pro forma.”

Navarro originally argued that Trump asked him to defy the subpoena under executive privilege to escape contempt charges. Mehta, a U.S. district judge in Washington, DC, who heard Navarro’s case, dismissed that argument last week, calling it “pretty weak sauce.”

“I said from the beginning that this was going to be taken to the Supreme Court,” Navarro continued, speaking to reporters. “I said from the beginning that I was ready to go to prison to settle this issue. I am ready to do it. But I also know that the probability of me going to prison is relatively low because we are right. about this question. “

This is a developing story and will be updated as more information becomes available.