Former White House economic adviser Peter Navarro contested the charges against him in federal court in Washington, DC, on Friday, after he was arrested by the FBI on two counts of contempt of Congress for defying the January 6 committee.
Navarro spent hours in custody and in court, “having at it,” in the words of Fox News anchor Neil Cavuto. He confirmed that he had been arrested while boarding a domestic flight, and placed into “handcuffs” and “leg irons.”
He told reporters outside the courthouse that arresting officers had made a point of placing him in a cell once occupied by attempted assassin John Hinckley, Jr., who attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan four decades ago and was recently released from prison.
Navarro told Judge Amit Mehta that he would be appearing “pro se” — i.e. representing himself, rather than using a lawyer.
Outside the courthouse, he told reporters that he had offered the FBI a “modus vivendi” of cooperation last week, but that they had arrested him at the airport instead, in the manner of “Stalinist Russia or the Chinese Communist Party.” He described his treatment by the FBI as “terrorism” and “coercion” and as a form of punishment and intimidation.
Navarro also outlined his constitutional arguments against the legitimacy of the January 6 committee, which he is suing in federal court, arguing that it is asking him to violate executive privilege and violating the Constitution’s separation of powers.
He said that he believed a president could not revoke executive privilege invoked by a predecessor — an issue that remains unresolved, though the Supreme Court allowed the committee access to some of former President Trump’s documents.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
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