Former Trump Adviser Says FBI Let Him Go to Crowded Location Before Making a Show of Arresting Him
It was big news on Friday when former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro was indicted on a charge of criminal contempt of Congress after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House committee investigating the 2021 Capitol incursion.
But even bigger news was how the former presidential assistant for trade and manufacturing described his arrest to a federal judge shortly after it took place.
Instead of taking the prominent Washington figure into custody at home, or arranging for him to turn himself in, the FBI arrested Navarro at a Washington-area airport just before he got on a plane to Nashville, Tennessee, where he was scheduled for a television appearance.
Agents put him in handcuffs and led him away.
“I was a distinguished public servant for four years. No one ever treated me in this fashion,” the 72-year-old Navarro said during his court appearance, according to Fox News.
“Prosecution has put me in an untenable position,” Navarro told Magistrate Judge Zia Farqui, according to Fox.
“This is something that needs to get to the Supreme Court,” he added. “Department of Justice appears to have colluded with the White House and Congress.”
Navarro suggested that the prosecution was acting in “bad faith.”
The former Trump adviser also said in an interview that any prosecution of him is “domestic terrorism,” Fox reported.
At his court appearance, he added that the House committee investigating the incursion of Jan. 6, 2021, is illegitimate.
Navarro told Farqui that he filed a lawsuit against the House of Representatives and the committee just days before, on May 31.
He was released without bail after the hearing, CNBC News reported.
This chain of events was kicked off in February after Navarro was subpoenaed about his knowledge of events surrounding the incursion.
According to the CNBC, Navarro was supposed to hand over documents the committee requested by Feb. 23 and appear for testimony on March 2.
He did neither.
Now, after his indictment, Navarro faces two counts. Each would mean about 30 days to a year of jail time and a fine of up to $100,000 if he is convicted, Fox News reported.
Navarro is not the only former aide that the House committee is going after for contempt of Congress.
The House has also voted to hold former Trump aide Dan Scavino and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress. The Department of Justice has not prosecuted them, though.
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