Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro convicted after defying subpoena from Jan. 6 committee

WASHINGTON — Peter Navarro, a trade adviser to former President Donald Trump, was convicted Thursday of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena.

The House committee that investigated the Capitol attack on Jan. 6, 2021, subpoenaed Navarro for testimony and documents about strategies to overturn the 2020 election. But Navarro defied the subpoena, arguing he was protected by executive privilege, to keep communications with Trump confidential.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta had rejected Navarro's request to dismiss the charges, ruling he couldn't document Trump himself had invoked executive privilege. Mehta scheduled sentencing for Jan. 12.

“Peter Navarro made a choice. He chose not abide by the congressional subpoena,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi said. “The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over compliance to the subpoena.”

But Navarro's lawyer, Stanley Woodward, argued prosecutors hadn't proven Navarro acted "willfully" or out of loyalty to Trump.

“Do we know that his failure to comply beyond reasonable doubt wasn’t the result of accident, inadvertence or mistake?” he said

Navarro is one of four people the House voted to recommend the Justice Department prosecute. Political strategist Steve Bannon was convicted, sentenced to four months in jail and has appealed.

The Department decided against charging former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former deputy chief of staff Dan Scavino.

The House committee sought to question Navarro because in his 2021 book "In Trump Time," Navarro described the scheme to delay certification of the election of President Joe Biden in 2020 as the "Green Bay Sweep" and said it was the "last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of deceit."

The committee said in its letter to Navarro seeking his testimony that he had said Trump and "more than 100 members of Congress were 'on board with the strategy.'" The committee also said Navarro released a three-page report on his website that repeated claims of purported fraud in the election that have been discredited in public reporting by state and local officials.

Trump faces federal charges in Washington and state charges in Georgia alleging he tried to interfere with the 2020 election. Trump pleaded not guilty.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Peter Navarro, former Donald Trump aide, convicted on contempt charges