Navarro says his conviction has Trump White House feeling as if they’re facing prison

Peter Navarro’s contempt of Congress conviction has “everybody in that frigging White House” feeling as if they are grappling with “massive legal bills and … prison time”, the ex-Donald Trump administration official said on Monday.

Navarro’s remarks came in an interview with the far-right media outlet Newsmax in which he used the term “SOBs” – short for sons of bitches – to refer to the US justice department prosecutors who secured a guilty verdict against him last week.

Lamenting that prosecutors had pushed to “stick me in leg irons … [and] with half a million dollars of legal bills”, Navarro pledged to seek a reversal of his conviction from an appellate court.

“We’re gonna win this fight – that’s why God created the appeals court,” Navarro told the host Eric Bolling.

Navarro served as a senior trade adviser during Trump’s presidency, which ended in the Republican’s defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election. Congress subpoenaed him in February 2022 to answer questions about why Trump supporters attacked the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, temporarily delaying certification of Biden’s electoral victory.

A House committee convened to investigate the attack suspected Navarro had more information about any connection between false claims of voter fraud in that election which Trump allies had pushed and the assault on the Capitol. But Navarro refused to testify while also declining to turn over any emails, reports or notes.

Navarro’s attorney argued that the defendant asked the committee to talk to Trump to see what information he wanted protected under executive privilege, which never happened. Prosecutors countered that Navarro should have handed over the materials he had while labeling those he believed were privileged.

On Thursday, a jury convicted Navarro of two misdemeanor charges of contempt of Congress, each of which is punishable by between 30 days and a year in prison. His sentencing has tentatively been scheduled for 12 January.

Another former Trump White House adviser – Steve Bannon – has received a four-month prison sentence after his conviction on two contempt of Congress charges last year. Bannon, a far-right agitator, has been free while he pursues an appeal of the verdict against him.

Navarro’s interview came three days after the former New York City mayor and Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani publicly described how the former president was “really, really upset” when he learned Navarro had been found guilty despite his arguments related to executive privilege.

Giuliani and Trump were tracking Navarro’s trial after pleading not guilty to charges brought against them in a sprawling indictment accusing them and 19 other people of conspiring to thwart the will of Georgia’s voters who had selected Biden in the 2020 presidential race.

The charges in Georgia are contained in one of four criminal indictments filed against Trump this year. The others charge him for his retention of classified documents after leaving the White House, hush-money payments to the adult film star Stormy Daniels and other efforts to forcibly overturn his loss to his Democratic rival Biden.

Trump has denied all wrongdoing and maintains a significant polling lead in the race for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

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