Jan. 25 (UPI) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro is set to be sentenced Thursday on two charges of contempt of Congress coming from 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 is set to deliver the sentence in a Washington D.C. federal court hearing that began at 10 a.m.
The prosecution 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.