Trump aide handed four-month jail term for contempt of Congress

He was the second Trump aide to face contempt of Congress charges, after former White House adviser Steve Bannon.

Navarro was found guilty of defying a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House January 6 committee.

He served as a White House trade adviser under then-president Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

He has vowed to appeal against the verdict, saying he could not cooperate with the committee because Mr Trump had invoked executive privilege.

A judge barred him from making that argument at trial, however, finding that he did not show Mr Trump had actually invoked it.

Navarro said in court before his sentencing on Thursday that the House committee investigating the January 6 attack had led him to believe that it accepted his invocation of executive privilege.

“Nobody in my position should be put in conflict between the legislative branch and the executive branch,” he told the judge.

Navarro’s lawyers had advised him not to address the judge but he said he wanted to speak after hearing the judge express disappointment in him.

Responding to a question about why he did not initially seek a lawyer’s counsel, he told the judge, “I didn’t know what to do, sir.”

Justice Department prosecutors say Navarro tried to “hide behind claims of privilege” even before he knew what the committee wanted, showing a “disdain” for the committee that should warrant a longer sentence.

Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to six months behind bars and impose a 200,000 dollar fine.

Defence attorneys said Mr Trump did claim executive privilege, putting Navarro in an “untenable position” and they asked for a sentence of probation and a 100 dollar fine.

Bannon, who also made executive-privilege arguments, was convicted of two counts and was sentenced to four months behind bars, though he has been free while appealing against his conviction.

Navarro’s sentencing comes after a judge rejected his bid for a new trial.

His attorneys had argued that jurors may have been improperly influenced by political protesters outside the courthouse when they took a break from deliberations.

Shortly after their break, the jurors found Navarro guilty of two misdemeanour counts of contempt of Congress.

But US District Judge Amit Mehta found that Navarro did not show that the eight-minute break had any effect on the September verdict.

He found no protest was under way and no one approached the jurors — they interacted only with each other and the court officer assigned to accompany them.