Peter Navarro, a former senior advisor to ex-President Donald Trump, was charged with contempt of Congress on Friday for his refusal to comply with a House of Representatives committee probing the attack on the United States Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
However, despite a House vote suggesting criminal charges, two additional close allies of the former president, Mark Meadows, and Daniel Scavino, will not face them, Reuters reports.
According to the Justice Department, a federal grand jury charged Navarro with one count for refusing to attend a deposition before the Select Committee on Jan. 6 and another for refusing to disclose documents in answer to a subpoena.
At his 72-minute appearance before Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, Navarro did not enter a plea. The former Trump advisor accused the Justice Department of “prosecutorial malpractice” when he was arrested at a local airport while attempting to fly to Nashville and New York.
Authorities, according to Navarro, rejected his request to contact counsel and refused to let him make a phone call while he was detained. He told the judge, “I am… dissatisfied in our nation.” The date of his next court appearance has been scheduled for June 17th.
Navarro, a long-time China hawk, participated in Trump’s COVID-19 task team and advised him on trade problems. He has previously claimed that executive privilege, a legal principle that protects a president’s conversations, protects his communications.
His arrest came just a week before the committee was set to hold the first of many public hearings on its probe on June 9. It happened just two days after Navarro launched a legal case against Pelosi and the House committee.
Trump has pushed his allies to refuse to comply with the Democratic-led probe, which he has described as politically motivated.
The committee stated in its subpoena that it had grounds to suspect Navarro, 72, had information pertinent to its probe.
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