Former Trump White House aide Peter Navarro, criminally-indicted on contempt of Congress charges for refusing to hand over documents and testify before the U.S. House Select Committee on the January 6 Attack, is now complaining about the cost of his trial after claiming initially he would represent himself.
Navarro, who wore numerous hats during the Trump administration, had claimed he did not have to comply with the legally-produced congressional subpoena because he had executive privilege, allegedly an extension of the privilege Donald Trump had asserted. A federal judge threw that argument out, leaving the former Assistant to the President and Director of Trade and Manufacturing Policy with little to support his reasons for not complying.
Legal experts have said that even if Navarro’s claims of privilege had been legitimate, he still would have been legally required to assert that privilege during his testimony before the Committee.
Professor of law and former U.S. Attorney Barb McQuade commented, “Navarro prosecution is important to our system of government. Even if you believe a congressional investigation is driven by political motives, you must show up when you receive a subpoena. That’s what’s on trial starting today.”
When first indicted by a federal grand jury last year in May, “Navarro said that he still wants to represent himself without a lawyer and accused prosecutors of using ‘hardball’ tactics by arresting him at an airport and not allowing him to make a phone call,” CNN had reported.
The Washington Post reported Tuesday, “the 74-year-old economist, still a loud proponent of the ‘stolen election’ falsehoods of his ex-boss, remains noteworthy in this sense: After right-wing provocateur Stephen K. Bannon was convicted last summer of contempt of Congress, Navarro on Tuesday became the second top official in Trump’s White House to face a criminal trial related to a scheme to undo Joe Biden’s 2020 victory at the polls.”
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“And Navarro, who has pleaded not guilty, said it is costing him plenty. ‘My legal bills just went up by another half-million dollars,’ he said last week as he departed the federal courthouse in Washington, having failed in his last-ditch attempt to have the case against him thrown out.”
“By the time the trial finishes, I expect those legal fees to hit $750,000,” Navarro, who has been called a “conspiracy theorist,” said last week.
“Rarely given to understatement, Navarro cast his legal fight with the Justice Department as an epic constitutional battle over ‘the separation of powers between the legislative branch and the executive branch,’ which ‘is probably going to the Supreme Court.'”
By Tuesday afternoon, Navarro, a “fringe” economist, upped that number substantially.
“This will be the most expensive week, thus far, of this journey,” he told reporters outside the courthouse, as a protestor stood behind him. “The legal fees, because we’ll have attorneys in the courtroom, for what’s likely to be the full week, will run up the meter once again, this will be, at the end of the journey, a case costing over $1 million or more.”
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But last week, appearing on Steve Bannon’s “War Room,” Navarro said his legal fees would grow to $1.7 million in total, including appeals.
Watch Navarro below or at this link.