Trial begins for former Trump adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of committee on January 6

The contempt trial of Peter Navarro, a former White House adviser to Donald Trump, began Wednesday with conflicting opening statements from prosecutors and the defense, CNN reported.

Navarro, who was director of the White House Office of Industrial and Trade Policy under Trump, is facing trial after a grand jury indicted him in June.

The former White House trade adviser “acted like he was above the law,” Justice Department attorney John Crabbe told the jury. “But he is not above the law. Nobody is.”

Navarro’s lawyer, Stanley Woodward, in his opening statement, said he agreed with prosecutors that Navarro did not submit documents and did not testify, but, according to him, Committee did not communicate with former President Donald Trump on January 6 to find out whether he exercised the powers of the executive branch in relation to Navarro’s testimony and the production of documents.

First accusation Navarro faces raises concern failure to submit documents related to the committee’s investigation, and the second is related to failure to appear to testify to investigators. Navarro pleaded not guilty.

If found guilty on both counts, he faces up to two years in prison and a fine of up to $200,000.

Prosecutors argued before U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta that Navarro’s failure to comply prevented the committee from obtaining information relevant to his investigation.

“Congress believed that Navarro had information about what happened on January 6, and more specifically, why it happened,” Assistant US Attorney John Crabbe said in opening arguments.

But defense lawyers said prosecutors failed to meet their burden of proof by comparing the government’s version to a movie trailer containing the best parts of the movie, leaving “nothing” of substance to the movie itself.

Both the prosecution and the defense finished their presentations on Wednesday, with closing arguments scheduled for Thursday.