Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro is suing House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and her politically motivated January 6 select committee for holding him in contempt of Congress for refusing to comply with a subpoena.
Navarro faces possible criminal charges after the House last month voted 220 to 203, mostly along party lines, calling on the Justice Department to prosecute him and Dan Scavino, who was President Donald Trump’s former deputy chief of staff. Both men insist executive privilege prevents their cooperation with subpoenas from the Democratic-led committee, with Navarro arguing that President Biden had no authority to waive Trump’s executive privilege or his former adviser’s “‘testimonial immunity,” the Daily Mail reported.
”We have two people who are flagrantly, brazenly defying the authority of the House of Representatives of the United States,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., a member of the committee, said at the time of the vote.
Navarro argues in his legal filing that the courts must intervene to protect the separation of powers, and ensure that lawmakers were not getting into matters of justice, according to the Daily Mail. He also says that he will testify only if the former president authorized him to do so.
“Repeated abuses by partisans and political score settlers like those on the Committee have institutionalized a partisan weaponization of Congress’ investigatory powers that now threatens the delicate balance and separation of powers between the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of our government,” he wrote.
The economist wants a jury trial as he seeks to overturn the contempt of court ruling from the Democrat-run House.
“The committee’s members along with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi over a more than five year period have been engaged in a ‘repeatable strategic game; of ‘gotcha’ and punishment that threatens to reduce the institutions of executive privilege and testimonial immunity to ping pong balls of partisan politics,” Navarro said.
“‘In this strategic ping pong game,” he continues, “whichever party controls both the House of Representatives and White House will effectively weaponize Congress’s investigatory powers in ways designed to: (1) punish political rivals and (2) deny individuals the opportunity to effectively run for political office or serve in government.”
Navarro warned Democrats of the long-range implications if they are successful in their “deadly game.”
“If the Committee and Joe Biden manage to pull this deadly game off now and effectively establish the principle in settled law that an incumbent can strip his predecessor of both executive privilege and testimonial immunity, just imagine what will happen to Joe Biden and his advisers if Republicans win both the White House and House in 2024,” he says.
He also said he will represent himself in such a trial.
“Each of the issues raised in the lawsuit — which took several months to prepare — are ripe for the judiciary to address; I find it my duty to raise these issues now rather than submit to the coercion of a kangaroo committee,” Navarro told USA Today.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows and former White House strategist Steve Bannon have also ignored the Jan. 6 panel’s subpoenas, while ex-Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani sat before the committee for nine hours recently. Last month the former president’s daughter, Ivanka, spoke to the committee, as did her husband Jared Kushner.
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Tom Tillison grew up in Maryland before moving to Central Florida as a young teen. It is in the Sunshine State that he honed both his passion for politics and his writing skills. Tillison also contributes to BizPac Review.
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