Peter Navarro appears likely to lose his trial for contempt of Congress, making him the latest Donald Trump loyalist to suffer penalties for doing the former president's bidding.
The former White House trade adviser made the rounds for months explaining to TV and podcast hosts, journalists, and even writing his own book how he tried to keep Trump in office despite his 2020 election loss, but Navarro refused to give his account of the effort under oath to the House Jan. 6 Committee -- despite receiving a congressional subpoena ordering him to show up, reported The Daily Beast.
"Like [Steve] Bannon, Navarro didn’t have to go through this," wrote political investigations reporter Jose Pagliery. "He could have showed up on Capitol Hill and told congressional investigators the same thing he was telling the American public — or even remained quiet and asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination."
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"But at this point, the DOJ need only use his own words against him," Pagliery added. "On Tuesday, prosecutors filed a court memo indicating that Navarro himself has already copped to the crime in the ill-advised 88-page lawsuit he filed on his own against then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi — a move that violated the old adage, 'A man who represents himself has a fool for a client.'"
Navarro was charged with two misdemeanor counts of congressional contempt, and Bannon's own trial last year suggests it will quickly end with a jury conviction because he has almost no defense to offer and a judge barred him from claiming executive privilege after Trump had left office and never asserted that himself.
"Trump of course could interject and say he told Navarro not to testify in some expression of executive privilege," Pagliery wrote. "But he’s extremely unlikely to speak up, perhaps because he didn’t but also because saying so would just strengthen twocriminal cases against him. Instead, Navarro has next to no defense."
"Navarro is poised to lose the trial convincingly, completing his destiny as yet another Trump loyalist undone by his unyielding service to a man who keeps deflecting blame for every policy and business failure," he added.