Trump Reacts to Navarro Conviction: ‘Only China is Celebrating’

President Donald Trump and White House trade adviser Peter Navarro check out the new Endurance all-electric pickup truck on the south lawn of the White House in Washington on Sept. 28, 2020. Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump lashed out against the recent conviction of his White House aide Peter Navarro, saying that only China is “celebrating” the decision.

“I can’t believe that these Fascist Monsters have so viciously gone after the great Peter Navarro for defying the totally partisan January 6th Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs, who refused to go after Crazy Nancy Pelosi, and the reasons she and the Mayor of D.C. REJECTED 10,000 soldiers, which would have easily stopped any future security problem,” President Trump said in a Sept. 8 post at Truth Social.

“His testimony wouldn’t have mattered, anyway, because the ‘Committee’ QUICKLY and ILLEGALLY DELETED & DESTROYED ALL EVIDENCE & FINDINGS!”

In another Truth Social post, President Trump insisted there was “MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, evidence and findings that the Unselect Committee DID NOT WANT SEEN. This deleted and destroyed evidence is a big part of my defense, and the defense of many others.”

“They should be the ones who are prosecuted, not Peter Navarro who, by the way, was single greatest trade negotiator against China, who paid the U.S. hundreds of billions of dollars during the Trump Administration (never paid ten cents before us!). Only China is celebrating the Navarro conviction!”

During the Trump administration, Mr. Navarro was one of the key architects of imposing tariffs on Chinese imports as an economic and national security strategy to protect American industry.

The administration had seen the tariffs as a necessary tool to counter Beijing’s predatory trade practices like dumping—the practice of foreign entities underpricing exports to drive out competitors from a target market.

Mr. Navarro was convicted on Thursday by a Washington, D.C., jury on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after a deliberation that lasted for almost five hours.

The jury determined that Mr. Navarro had wilfully failed to comply with the House Jan. 6 Committee subpoena when he refused to testify before them and produce certain requested documents.

The two counts carry a maximum sentence of a year in prison and fines of up to $100,000. Mr. Navarro’s sentencing was scheduled for Jan. 12, 2024, by U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta.

The 10,000 soldiers referred to in the first post is the number of National Guard troops that President Trump offered to deploy in Washington, D.C., prior to the Capitol breach, as confirmed by former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows in a Fox News interview.

In an interview with The Epoch Times last year, former Pentagon chief of staff Kash Patel said that President Trump’s offer of National Guard deployment was rejected by former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser.

Navarro and Executive Privilege

Mr. Navarro was indicted for contempt of Congress in June last year and pleaded not guilty to the charge. He had defied the Jan. 6 subcommittee’s subpoena on grounds that his communication with President Trump and the president’s staff were protected under executive privilege, which can be invoked by a president to protect certain communications.

Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump arrives at the Monument Leaders Rally hosted by the South Dakota Republican Party in Rapid City, S.D., on Sept. 8, 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

During a hearing at a federal court in late August, Mr. Navarro clarified that President Trump made it “very clear” that communications between the two would be covered under executive privilege.

However, Judge Mehta ruled that there was insufficient evidence to confirm this but prohibited him from disclosing the information to a jury, thus stripping away Mr. Navarro’s plan to use the justification of executive privilege in his defense.

During the recent trial, Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth Aloi told jurors that “Peter Navarro made a choice. He chose not to comply with the congressional subpoena. Our government only works when people play by the rules,” according to CNBC.

“We are a nation of laws and our system does not work if people think they are above the law … If people like the defendant can choose to ignore the government’s subpoenas, the work of our government to serve its people cannot get done,” she said.

At a press conference post the jury decision to convict him, Mr. Navarro called the trial “a landmark case that’s bound for the Supreme Court.”

“It’s about the constitutional separation of powers that goes back to the days of George Washington when the legislative branch first began to try to meddle with the executive branch,” he said.

“There are very good reasons why executive privilege is sacrosanct. It’s the mechanism by which effective presidential decision-making is made. So this case is not about me.”

John Rowley, one of Mr. Navarro’s lawyers, said the court was wrong to block his client’s planned defense that his actions were covered by executive privilege since he was an advisor to the president. Such privilege was “part and parcel” of the office and “no express invocation of privilege is even necessary.”

Another Trump aide, Steve Bannon, was convicted last year on two counts of contempt against Congress after he refused to comply with the Jan. 6 subcommittee subpoenas. Though he was sentenced to four months in jail, Mr. Bannon remains free as he is appealing the conviction.