by Madeleine Hubbard
Former Trump White House trade adviser Peter Navarro on Thursday was to four months in prison following his conviction in September on two counts of congressional contempt after he defied a subpoena from the former House select committee that probed the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot.
Both counts carry mandatory minimum sentences of one month in prison, but prosecutors said in a filing last week that the amount of time “is insufficient to account for, punish, and deter the Defendant’s criminal offense,” according to ABC News.
Prosecutors asked federal Judge Amit Mehta to sentence Navarro, 74, to six months in prison for each charge, running concurrently, and fine him $200,000, which is $100,000 for each count, per CNN.
The judge ultimately ordered Navarro to pay a $9,500 fine.
“The Defendant, like the rioters at the Capitol, put politics, not country, first, and stonewalled Congress’s investigation,” prosecutors also said. “The Defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over the rule of law.”
Although the House select committee is no longer functional, its effects are still being felt.
For example, former Trump White House strategist Steve Bannon was convicted in 2022 on two counts of contempt and sentenced to four months in prison, but the sentence is suspended pending an appeal as he attempts to overturn his conviction.
Meanwhile, the select committee is accused of deleting more than 100 encrypted files days before Republicans took the majority.
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Madeleine Hubbard joined Just the News as a fast file reporter after working as an editor at Breitbart News.
