Fresh Out Of Prison, Ex-Trump Aide And Jan. 6 Coup Plotter Gets Hero’s Welcome At RNC
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MILWAUKEE – Just hours out of prison, former aide to Donald Trump and fellow coup plotter Peter Navarro received a hero’s welcome at the Republican National Convention Wednesday evening.
“Yes, indeed, this morning I did walk out of political prison,” Navarro told the cheering arena, after being greeted with an extended standing ovation. “Joe Biden and his department of injustice put me there.”
Navarro, 75, in 2020 came up with a scheme he called the “Green Bay Sweep” to block the congressional certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory and send the election to the House of Representatives. There, Trump would likely have won because each state is afforded a single vote, and more state delegations were controlled by Republicans.
Unlike other Trump aides, many of whom tried to conceal their roles in overturning an election their boss lost by 7 million votes, Navarro openly boasted of his plan in a book and numerous interviews. He blamed the scheme’s failure on Trump’s vice president, Mike Pence, who refused to take part.
“Pence betrayed Trump,” he told The Washington Examiner.
Also unlike most Trump aides, who honored requests to cooperate with the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the Capitol, Navarro openly defied a subpoena to testify.
The committee recommended Navarro be prosecuted for that choice, and last September he was convicted by a Washington, D.C., jury on contempt of Congress charges. In March, an appellate court upheld the conviction, rejecting his claim that Trump’s executive privilege prevented him from testifying.
He was scolded for his claims that he was being persecuted by the federal judge who sentenced him to four months in prison.
“Let’s make clear, Dr. Navarro, you are not a victim. You are not the object of a political prosecution,” said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta. “These are circumstances of your own making,”
Navarro remained defiant even while in prison, and upon his release in Miami immediately boarded a flight to Milwaukee so he could speak on the third day of the Republican convention.
On Wednesday night, Navarro continued that defiance, pumping his fist to chants of “fight, fight, fight” — a nod to a bleeding Trump’s exhortation after his assassination attempt Saturday evening.
Navarro repeatedly claimed he’d been persecuted.
“The J6 committee demanded that I betray Donald John Trump to save my own skin. I refused,” he said. “They convicted me, they jailed me. But guess what ― they did not break me. … I went to prison so you won’t have to. I am your wakeup call.”
A fellow former Trump top aide, Steve Bannon, also defied the Jan. 6 Committee’s subpoena. He, too, was convicted for contempt of Congress, lost his appeals and was given four months in prison. He began that sentence on July 1.
Bannon, like Navarro, also helped Trump spread lies that the 2020 election had been stolen.
Trump, like Navarro and Bannon, is also a convicted felon. Two months ago, the former president was found guilty on 34 counts of falsifying business records to hide a hush money payment to a porn actor in the days before the 2016 election.
Trump also faces federal and state indictments based on his coup attempt. A second federal indictment for his refusal to turn over classified documents he took with him from the White House was dismissed this week, but that ruling could be reversed on appeal.
