WASHINGTON, DC – JUNE 17: Former Trump White House Advisor Peter Navarro (L) talks to reporters with his new attorney John Rowley after Navarro was arraigned at the Prettyman U.S. Courthouse on June 17, 2022, in Washington, DC. A federal grand jury indicted Navarro for contempt of Congress after he refused to cooperate with the House January 6 Committees investigation. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
When former Trump White House advisor Peter Navarro asked a federal judge for a new trial, he claimed it was necessary because protesters holding signs such as, ‘Bro, Should’ve Pled the 5th’ and ‘Peter for Prison’ outside of the courthouse turned jurors against him. Now a judge wants him to prove it.
In a minute order issued by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the Barack Obama-appointee noted that in Navarro’s motion for a new trial filed last week, he made the claims of prejudicial posters and protesters but conceded no clear or “publicly available” footage of jurors being rigorously subjected to this, existed.
Nor, his attorney Stanley Woodward wrote, was clear footage available via the courthouse’s closed-circuit security cameras.
Nonetheless, Woodward argued it was “undisputed” that unfriendly protesters were “paraded” past the jury during a break in proceedings and it was this that irreparably influenced them to render two guilty verdicts for Navarro.
UPDATE: Govt is not opposed to Navarro’s req to travel abroad for medical care before sentencing in Jan for contempt of Congress.
AND the judge gives Navarro until TOMORROW to source claims that evidence “confirms” protesters carried signs in exact area he cited as problematic pic.twitter.com/mGhZPDrXk7Read Related Also: ‘How do you explain having zero nasal hair’: Revealing bodycam video after unbuckled 7-year-old girl’s crash death shows mom screaming, admitting drug use
— Brandi Buchman (@Brandi_Buchman) October 10, 2023
Navarro was indicted last June after repeatedly bucking requests — including a formal subpoena — from the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6, 2021 Attack on the U.S. Capitol. Congressional investigators had sought the former White House trade adviser’s records in February and his deposition to follow that March. They specifically wanted to discuss his talks with Trump’s short-lived strategist, the hard-right conspiracy theorist Steve Bannon.
Navarro told the committee he would not testify because Trump had told him not to cooperate and had also asserted executive privilege over his records and testimony. This, he unsuccessfully argued, made him immune from the reach of Congress.
For months before the trial, Navarro fought to stave off the committee on these grounds, but it was Judge Mehta who decided there was no sufficient evidence to support Navarro’s contention that Trump asserted executive privilege.
He was found guilty on two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress on Sept. 7.
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