Judges amazed by Peter Navarro's contempt appeal and hold lawyer's feet to fire as Trump DOJ sits this one out [View all]

Source: Law & Crime

Dec 18th, 2025, 3:51 pm


Peter Navarro, the White House trade adviser during President Donald Trump's first term who went on to do time in federal prison for contempt of Congress, insists to this day that his incarceration should never have happened and his convictions should be reversed.

During brisk oral arguments on Thursday afternoon before a three-judge panel of D.C. Circuit judges, Navarro's lawyer Stanley Brand argued, much the same as in briefs, that his client, once again in government as a senior counselor for trade and manufacturing, had real executive privilege claims that were wrongly ignored.

The panel was not a good draw for Navarro, as U.S. Circuit Judges Patricia Millett, Cornelia Pillard, and J. Michelle Childs — two Barack Obama appointees and one Joe Biden appointee — took a dim view from the start. After roughly one minute of making his case that the Navarro prosecution was the first of its kind, the panel began peppering Brand with questions.

"You have to show up first, right?" Childs asked regarding Navarro's supposed attempt to resolve his dispute with the Jan. 6 Committee over privilege without court intervention. "No, he informed the committee staff that he thought he was bound by privilege," Navarro's attorney answered. "But that was before receiving the actual documents or knowing what the testimony was going to be about and that it might have covered broader than what his actual communications or relationships or job duties were with the White House?" Childs followed up.

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