Peter Navarro to face contempt trial for defying Jan. 6 committee as legal fees soar

Peter Navarro, a former trusted White House adviser to Donald Trump, will head to trial this week for contempt of Congress. Navarro, a staunch advocate of Trump’s “stolen election” claims, is charged with two misdemeanor counts of contempt for refusing to cooperate and provide testimony and documents to the House select committee investigating the Capitol insurrection. Former MAGA aide Steve Bannon was similarly convicted in July 2022 after defying congressional subpoenas and was hit with a four-month prison sentence. 

The Washington Post reports that Navarro, who has pleaded not guilty, stated last week outside a Washington courthouse that his “legal bills just went up by another half-million dollars”  and that he expects the final cost of those fees to reach $750,000, on the expectation that his case “is probably going to the Supreme Court.”

“Do I look like a rich man?” Navarro continued. “This is the same suit I wore in 2017 going into the White House, OK?” He described his prosecution as “partisan” and an attempt “to punish political rivals,” saying, “[T]hey try to put you in prison, which they’re trying to do with me. But it’s also to bankrupt you, OK?”

Navarro reportedly refused to cooperate with the Jan. 6 committee largely because Trump, although no longer in the White House, had “broadly invoked executive privilege in conversations” with Navarro, telling him not to testify about matters related to the House committee’s probe. Initial court rulings indicate that is not likely to be a successful defense.