WASHINGTON – A jury started weighing contempt of Congress fees towards Trump White House reputable Peter Navarro on Thursday over his failure to cooperate with a subpoena from the committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol.
Prosecutors argued that Navarro “chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump” over obeying a subpoena from the House panel investigating after a mob of the Republican’s supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol and interrupted the certification of the 2020 presidential vote for Joe Biden, a Democrat.
Navarro, a former senior business adviser, is charged with two counts of contempt of Congress. A protection lawyer argued Navarro didn’t purposely forget about the House Jan. 6 Committee. Navarro as a substitute informed staffers to touch Trump about what could be safe by way of executive privilege, one thing that didn’t occur, protection lawyer Stanley Woodward argued.
A pass judgement on has dominated the manager privilege argument isn’t a protection towards the fees, discovering Navarro couldn’t display that Trump had invoked it. But Woodward mentioned prosecutors hadn’t confirmed that Navarro acted “willfully” or handiest 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 mentioned.
Prosecutors, although, mentioned Navarro will have to have passed over what subject material he may and flagged any questions or paperwork believed to be safe underneath government privilege.
“Peter Navarro made a choice. He chose not abide by the congressional subpoena,” prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi mentioned. “The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over compliance to the subpoena.”
Navarro faces two fees, one for failing to produce paperwork and a 2d for failing to sit down for a deposition. He faces up to a 12 months in the back of bars on every rely if convicted.
Navarro used to be the second one Trump aide to face contempt of Congress fees after former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Bannon used to be convicted of two counts and used to be sentenced to four months behind bars, although he has been unfastened pending enchantment.
The House Jan. 6 committee completed its paintings in January, after a final report that mentioned Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful effects of the 2020 election and failed to act to forestall a mob of his supporters from attacking the Capitol.
Trump now faces a federal indictment in Washington, D.C., and a state indictment in Georgia over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss. He has denied wrongdoing and has mentioned he used to be appearing inside the legislation.