Ex-Trump official portrayed his contempt of Congress charges for obstructing January 6 inquiry as overreach
Walking out to a standing ovation, Peter Navarro, the former Trump official, delivered a speech of personal grievances at the Republican national convention on Wednesday, hours after he was released from federal prison following his conviction on contempt of Congress charges for obstructing the January 6 committee investigation.
The former Trump White House adviser tried – as he has done previously – to portray his criminal case as an egregious overreach of prosecutorial power, taking a page from Trump’s own playbook to claim he was a martyr taking hits on behalf of voters.
“If they can come for me, if they can come for Donald Trump, they can come for you,” Navarro said. “If we don’t control our government, their government will control us.”
“I went to prison so you don’t have to,” Navarro later added.
Navarro, 75, was found guilty last September on two counts of contempt of Congress after he refused to produce documents and testimony in the congressional investigation into the 2021 Capitol attack, claiming executive privilege protections meant he did not have to cooperate.
