Former White House adviser Peter Navarro said on Monday that he was served with a federal grand jury subpoena related to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
The former trade adviser to President Donald Trump said he received the subpoena from the FBI agents on Thursday of last week seeking to compel his testimony in front of a federal grand jury on Thursday, June 2. Federal prosecutors are seeking records from Navarro related to the Jan. 6 Capitol last year, including “any communications” with Trump. Navarro disclosed the existence of the subpoena in a draft lawsuit that he intends to file against members of the House Jan. 6 select committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Matthew Graves.
“On May 26, 2022, two FBI special agents banged loudly on my door in the early morning hours to present me with a fruit of the poisonous tree,” Navarro said in the draft lawsuit, describing the moment he says he was served with the subpoena.
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Navarro, 72, said the grand jury subpoena is “commanding me to comply with the original ultra vires, illegal and unenforceable subpoena issued to me by the Committee dated February 9, 10 2022.”
The former Trump aide said the grand jury subpoena was signed by Graves and ignores “all claims of executive privilege and testimonial immunity while commanding me to testify before” the grand jury in D.C. on Thursday.
According to Navarro, the subpoena asks for “‘all documents relating to the subpoena dated February 9, 2022’ that I ‘received from the House Select Committee to investigate the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, including but not limited to any communications with formal President Trump and/or his counsel or representative.'”
Navarro’s lawsuit seeks a judge to declare the Jan. 6 committee “neither duly authorized nor properly constituted,” and thus prohibited from issuing subpoenas. The complaint seeks a declaratory judgment against President Joe Biden “that he does not have the legal authority to waive any executive privilege or testimonial immunity invoked by his predecessor in this case.” He describes the grad jury subpoena he says he received on May 26 as “derivative” of the select committee’s subpoena from February.
The House in April recommended that the Justice Department charge Navarro with contempt of Congress for his refusal to testify to the Jan. 6 committee in February.
Navarro will represent himself in the lawsuit, which is dated June 1, the date he will presumably file it in court. The draft lawsuit did not contain a copy of the alleged May 26 subpoena.
Navarro, the former director of the Office of Trade and Manufacturing Policy, notably worked to swing the outcome of the 2020 election in Trump’s favor after he was defeated by President Joe Biden. Navarro issued several reports claiming that Democratic operatives “stole” the election from Trump, highlighting alleged voting irregularities “more than sufficient” to overturn the results of the election.
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Earlier this year, Navarro distanced himself from one of his former aides, Garrett Ziegler, who allegedly set up an Oval Office meeting with Trump to discuss using the military to seize voting machines following the 2020 election.
“He was working off the reservation and not at my direction,” Navarro told MSNBC in February about the reported meeting.
The Washington Examiner has reached out to Peter Navarro for comment.
