A judge on Thursday denied a motion by Peter Navarro, a former adviser to former President Donald Trump, to dismiss contempt charges for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena by a House committee investigating the January 6, 2021 uprising.
Navarro was indicted on one count of contempt of Congress after failing to provide documents to the committee, and another for failing to testify. He has pleaded not guilty.
He asserted his executive privilege to explain his actions to the panel, but U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta said Navarro’s claims about his authority were without evidence and therefore he “cannot avoid prosecution for contempt.”
Navarro said Trump asked him to assert executive privilege at the House committee’s request during a private conversation, but the former aide has not produced evidence to support this.
“The contention is only in his counsel’s representation, which is not evidence,” Mehta wrote, according to a copy of the opinion published by CNN. “Without substantial evidence, the court cannot find that there was an invocation of the privilege by the former President.”
The judge also argued that the panel should reach out to Trump to confirm Navarro’s claim, saying that this burden belongs to the privilege – Trump.
“The Court cannot dismiss the indictment for contempt of Congress on the presumption that President Trump would assert executive privilege if only requested,” Mehta wrote.
While the Justice Department is pursuing charges against Navarro, it has not done the same with former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino, who also failed to cooperate with the investigation.
Navarro said he was singled out as a “result of unlawful selective prosecution,” saying he was in “the same situation” as the two. Mehta did not agree.
Meadows and Scavino received a letter from Justin Clark, Trump’s adviser, calling them not to respond to subpoenas from the committee on January 6.
“Had the President issued the same letter as the Defendant, the record here would have looked very different,” Mehta wrote.
The judge added that both Meadows and Scavino had communicated in detail with the committee through subpoenas – as opposed to Navarro, who showed little interest in participating with the panel.
“This interaction with the Select Committee is different from the Accused, who communicated with the Select Committee for three weeks mainly through emails and public statements,” Mehta said.
There were “real differences” between the three men that could explain the “disparate treatment,” the judge said.
Mehta also rejected Navarro’s suggestion that contempt charges could not be brought because the House committee was too small and had no members from the Republican Party.
Navarro’s trial is now expected to take place later this month.
In October, former Trump adviser Steve Bannon was sentenced to four months in prison and fined $6,500 in legal fees after being found guilty of violating a subpoena from the committee.
The panel completed its work when it delivered a report late last month detailing Trump’s efforts to stay in office after losing the 2020 election. The report included 11 recommendations to prevent the president from trying to overturn his re-election bid.