Peter Navarro, Donald Trump’s former trade advisor, urged FBI agents to ‘get the f*** out of here’ when they attempted to serve him a subpoena after he disobeyed the House January 6 committee, according to a new court filing on Monday.
Federal prosecutors said that the encounter occurred days before Navarro’s arrest at Ronald Reagan International Airport in Virginia.
The former Trump advisor has made the treatment he received at the hands of federal investigators the focal topic of his contempt of Congress trial.
The court handling Navarro’s case voiced worry last month with the method of his detention, which Navarro alleged included shackles and denial of food and drink.
According to a complaint acquired by the Washington Examiner, prosecutors claimed the altercation at the airport occurred when Navarro “refused to unlock the door” for cops and shouted at them while urging them to leave.
They said that Navarro is a ‘unpredictable subject’ whose arrest was consistent with someone with a ‘long history of seeking media attention.’
“To prevent a media circus, the arresting agents met the defendant in a quiet area on the jet-bridge at the airport, removed him to the tarmac, and transported him to be booked from there,” according to the document.
The Department of Justice accuses Navarro of lying about ‘the facts and his attitude toward the government at the time of his detention.’ It continues by stating that it is rare for “combative, unrepresented persons” to be requested to “self-surrender.”
This seems to be a direct reaction to US District Court Judge Amit Mehta’s inquiry last month as to why Navarro was not given this choice.
Mehta said in mid-July that he was “curious” as to “why the government regarded Mr. Navarro’s arrest in the manner that it did,” given that his offense was not violent.
Navarro faces two counts of contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate with the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 assault on the US Capitol.
The members of the bipartisan panel were interested in hearing from Navarro about his ties to Trump and his supporters’ attempts to change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
During court hearings, he said that the FBI withheld critical evidence from his defense team, an allegation that prosecutors refute.
In June, he said outside of court, ‘They stopped me from boarding the aircraft, cuffed me, and brought me here.’ They placed leg irons on me. They have placed me in a cell.
During his arrest, he addressed the FBI officials as “nice Nazis,” according to an FBI report.
Since then, prosecutors have claimed that Navarro made “several false claims” about his arrest.
In court documents filed on Monday, they assert that his detention conformed to US Marshals’ arrest regulations.
Prosecutors assert that the operation sought to “safely and quickly handle an unrepresented, unexpected issue without a media frenzy.”
Each accusation of contempt of Congress carries a potential fine of $100,000 and a possible sentence of one year in prison.
Navarro was the second individual charged by the Justice Department with contempt of Congress in connection to the investigation of the January 6 committee.
Former Trump advisor Steve Bannon is accused of playing a crucial part in the Trump supporters’ ‘command center’ at the Willard Hotel in Washington, DC on the night of January 5 into January 6 – when they reportedly attempted to devise a plot to prevent Congress from recognizing Joe Biden’s election win.
On his podcast, ‘War Room with Steve Bannon,’ he also promoted Trump’s accusations that the election was rigged.
In late July, Bannon was found guilty on two criminal contempt counts.
The January 6 committee has recently concluded eight summer hearings that revealed bombshell new information concerning Trump’s conduct immediately before and during the Capitol incident.
At the end of the eighth session, the ninth overall, Vice Chair Representative Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) announced that more hearings will be held in September.