This Thursday, longtime Trump ally Peter Navarro, who once served officially on the ex-commander-in-chief’s White House team, was given a four-month prison sentence after a criminal conviction on contempt of Congress allegations stemming from his defiance of the House committee that investigated the Capitol riot. And federal Judge Amit Mehta in Washington, D.C., while handling Navarro’s sentencing, shut down any idea that Navarro is just a victim of something political.
Remarks from the judge were shared on X (formerly Twitter) by journalist Kaitlan Collins with CNN. “I guess what bothers me ultimately is that here we are after a year and a half plus, and you still want to suggest to me that this is a political prosecution. You want me to believe this is a political prosecution,” the judge observed. “You are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution. These are the circumstances of your own making.”
The ruling against Navarro setting up his sentencing this week was the work of a jury. Prosecutors wanted a longer sentence that would have sent Navarro to detention for six months. Instead, he received a sentence in line with consequences doled out to Steve Bannon, another Trump ally who was also criminally convicted for flouting demands by the January 6 committee, which was led by Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) and now former Congresswoman Liz Cheney of Wyoming. Bannon’s sentence was put effectively on hold as his appeals moved forward.
Attempts by Navarro to use the concept of executive privilege to shield himself from serious consequences for his committee defiance failed. Trump, meanwhile, uses arguments similar to the idea that Mehta refuted on Thursday, continuing to allege politics behind his own wide-ranging prosecutions despite the lack of supporting evidence there for anything beyond an orderly process under established rules of the justice system with extensive opportunities for addressing grievances.
