Former White House adviser Peter Navarro filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday against the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia.
Navarro is suing to block the Jan. 6 committee from pursuing a subpoena against him and to enjoin the U.S. attorney general from enforcing a grand jury subpoena from Graves, which he revealed yesterday had been issued against him last Thursday.
PETER NAVARRO SLAPPED WITH GRAND JURY SUBPOENA RELATED TO CAPITOL RIOT
“I am seventy-two years old. I have spent my entire career in some form of public service,” the lawsuit says. “I should be allowed to retire with all of the thanks and honors and dignity and grace normally afforded people with such a resume. Instead, I have been hauled before the Committee’s kangaroo court, subjected to public hatred, and been forced to endure all the other punishments they can muster with their false accusations and threats of criminal prosecution.”
The former Trump economic adviser released a draft of the lawsuit Monday, which revealed the grand jury subpoena, and filed the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. His description of the grand jury subpoena indicated it closely resembles a subpoena the Jan. 6 committee levied against him in February. He declined to comply with that order, prompting a contempt of Congress vote against him in April. So far, the Justice Department has not taken public action against Navarro, but the contempt charge could bring jail time and a fine.
Like the Jan. 6 committee subpoena, which demanded testimony from him, the grand jury subpoena called for Navarro to appear for testimony this Thursday. The grand jury is also seeking communications he had with former President Donald Trump that are pertinent to the Capitol riot. Navarro previously cited executive privilege when he shunned the Jan. 6 committee subpoena.
The grand jury subpoena indicates that the Justice Department’s inquiry into the Jan. 6 riot has expanded beyond rioters to include figures close to the former president.
Navarro is representing himself in the lawsuit. He also listed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL), and others in the suit, which is “99% aimed” at the Jan. 6 committee and was largely drafted prior to receiving the grand jury subpoena, Navarro told the Hill.
Similar to others who have found themselves in the Jan. 6 committee’s crosshairs, Navarro argued the panel is illegitimate because it fails to comply with “its own authorizing resolution” because Pelosi did not appoint members recommended by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), including Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) as its top Republican. Navarro cited that in his request for “a declaratory judgment that the Committee is neither duly authorized nor properly constituted and therefore its legislative acts, including the subpoena issued to the Plaintiff.”
A spokesperson for the Jan. 6 panel told the Washington Examiner “no comment” when asked about the suit. The Justice Department was also asked for comment.
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During the aftermath of the 2020 election, Navarro collaborated with former Trump adviser Steve Bannon and others to concoct plans aimed at delaying Congress’s certification of the election, which took place Jan. 6, dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep.”
The plan was to enlist members of Congress and put pressure on Vice President Mike Pence to stall the Jan. 6 certification and send electoral votes back to several battleground states, where GOP-led legislatures could try to overturn the results over concerns of fraud and irregularities. Navarro claimed the rioters who swarmed the Capitol, disrupting the counting of electoral votes, messed up the plan. Lawmakers, along with Pence, reconvened that night and certified President Joe Biden’s victory.
Despite his public crowing about the plan, Navarro has insisted that “President Trump has invoked Executive Privilege, and it is not my privilege to waive.”
