Trump advisor Peter Navarro is demanding the Department of Justice (DOJ) explain why it is reversing course in a case that sent him to prison last year.
Navarro, who spent four months in prison for defying a subpoena from the Jan. 6 committee, argued the DOJ needs to do more than abandon its prior arguments as he continues to appeal his conviction.
“The Department of Justice should not be allowed to disavow, without explanation or acknowledgment of its reasons, the positions it has pursued in this case for more than three years,” Navarro argued in a Sunday filing.
Navaro is currently serving as senior counselor for trade and manufacturing after filling a similar role during the first Trump administration.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) determined in August that “it is no longer taking the same position as the prior administration” in his case, asking that the court appoint an outside attorney to defend the conviction. It also asked the court to strike a brief filed in the case by the Biden DOJ in September.
“When the Executive Branch abandons the positions it has aggressively advanced, the interests of candor, transparency, and fairness demand that it explain why,” Navarro’s filing states. “Without such an explanation, the Court and the Appellant are left to speculate whether the decision rests on principled legal grounds or on other, less appropriate, considerations.”
The DOJ needs to explain its current understanding of “the scope of Executive Privilege with respect to congressional subpoenas,” Navarro argued.
The DOJ did not respond to a request for comment from the Daily Caller News Foundation.
The Supreme Court declined to prevent Navarro from reporting to prison in March 2024 while his appeal was pending.
After Navarro was indicted in 2022, the FBI arrested him at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C., as he was on the way to a speaking engagement.
Trump said Navarro was “treated horribly by the Deep State, or whatever else you would like to call it” when he announced his appointment in December. Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon also served a four-month prison sentence last year on contempt of Congress charges.
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