Ex-Trump adviser Peter Navarro sentenced to 4 months in jail

Jan. 25 (UPI) -- Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in jail Thursday on two charges of contempt of Congress after his refusal to comply with a subpoena related to a House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta also ordered Navarro to pay a $9,500 fine.

Mehta said in court that Navarro's punishment was of his "own making" and criticized the former Trump adviser for claiming his prosecution was politically motivated.

"I guess what bothers me ultimately is that here we are after a year and a half plus and you still want to suggest to me that this is a political prosecution. You want me to believe this is a political prosecution," Mehta said during the sentencing hearing. "When the evidence is completely to the contrary."

The prosecution previously had asked Mehta to impose a prison sentence of six months and a fine of $600,000. Navarro's council sought a lesser sentence not exceeding six months of probation and a fine of $100,000.

The implementation of Mehta's sentence could be delayed as Navarro's attorneys have hinted they will appeal his conviction.

Navarro, 74, was found guilty of failing to comply with subpoenas the House select committee investigating the Capitol riots requesting that he provide documents and testimony, claiming former President Donald Trump gave him executive privilege.

"The defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country first and stonewalled Congress' investigation," the Justice Department said in a filing ahead of the sentence. "The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.

Fellow Trump adviser and right-wing podcaster Steve Bannon was previously sentenced to four months in prison in October 2021 for also defying a House select committee subpoena.

Prosecutors set that both men defied the subpoenas, despite speaking publicly about the issue for their own gain.

"Like Stephen Bannon before him, throughout the pendency of this case, the defendant has exploited his notoriety -- through courthouse press conferences, his books, and through podcasts -- to display to the public the reason for his failure to comply with the committee's subpoena: a disregard for government process and the law, and in particular the work of the committee," they wrote.