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There’s an astonishing number of people in Donald Trump’s orbit who’ve been convicted of crimes in recent years, to the point that The Washington Post described it as the “remarkable universe of criminality“ surrounding the former president. Today, as my MSNBC colleague Jordan Rubin reported, the list got a little longer.
Peter Navarro was found guilty of two counts of contempt of Congress in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Thursday. The former Trump White House adviser was charged after refusing to comply with a subpoena from the House Jan. 6 committee. He refused to appear for a deposition and provide documents.
Jordan’s report added that each count of contempt of Congress “carries a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of one year in jail, and a fine of up to $100,000.”
For those who might need a refresher, let’s revisit our earlier coverage and review how we arrived at this point.
When it comes to the investigation into the Jan. 6 attack, there have been some complex dimensions to the probe, but enforcement of subpoenas wasn’t supposed to be one of them. Navarro was a key insider in the Trump White House; he had important information; and he was subpoenaed to cooperate with the bipartisan investigation.
Navarro refused to comply.
With this in mind, congressional leaders — who didn’t want their subpoenas to be seen as optional invitations — voted last year to hold Navarro in contempt and referred the matter to the Justice Department. Two months later, he was charged.
Today, after a jury deliberated for about four hours, Navarro was convicted. He's scheduled to be sentenced in January.
As for the broader “culture of lawlessness“ that’s surrounded Trump in recent years, this list might be familiar to regular readers:
- Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
- Trump’s former campaign vice chairman, Rick Gates, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
- Trump’s former personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
- Trump’s former adviser and former campaign aide, Roger Stone, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
- Trump’s former White House national security advisor, Michael Flynn, was charged and convicted.
- Trump’s former campaign adviser, George Papadopoulos, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
- The Trump Organization’s former CFO, Allen Weisselberg, was charged, convicted, and sentenced to prison.
- Trump’s former chief strategist, Steve Bannon, was charged with wire fraud and money laundering, in addition to a conviction in a contempt case similar to Navarro’s.
- Though he was later acquitted at trial, Trump’s former inaugural committee chair, Tom Barrack, was charged with illegally lobbying Trump on behalf of a foreign government. (Elliot Broidy was the vice chair of Trump’s inaugural committee, and he found himself at the center of multiple controversies, and also pled guilty to federal charges related to illegal lobbying.)
- The former president’s business was itself found guilty of tax fraud.
Navarro, in other words, has plenty of company.
To be sure, some of the aforementioned men were ultimately pardoned by Trump, who doled out pardons as if they were party favors before exiting the Oval Office, but this doesn’t change the scope of the broader picture.
What’s more, it’s important to emphasize that Trump himself is also facing four criminal indictments across three jurisdictions, his “law and order” rhetoric notwithstanding.
This post updates our related earlier coverage.