- In a lawsuit, Peter Navarro revealed he’d been served a grand jury subpoena over the Jan 6 riot.
- The former Trump aide had already been subpoenaed once by the panel investigating the Capitol riot.
- Navarro wrote that he would testify only if former President Donald Trump authorized him to.
Former Trump adviser Peter Navarro has revealed that the FBI served him a subpoena to testify before a federal grand jury on Thursday about last January’s attack on the Capitol.
Navarro disclosed the latest subpoena against him in the draft of a lawsuit that details complaints against the January 6 House Committee, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the US attorney for the District of Columbia, Matt Graves.
In the 88-page draft, Navarro said the grand jury subpoena instructed him to produce documents in his possession related to the Capitol attack and records of “any communications” with former President Donald Trump. The lawsuit seeks to block the grand jury subpoena.
It was served to his house by two FBI agents who “banged loudly” on his door, Navarro’s lawsuit said.
The draft also said that the subpoena is connected to another served to him by the January 6 House Committee in February. Navarro has refused to cooperate with the January 6 committee, citing “executive privilege,” even after the House voted to hold him in contempt of Congress.
Navarro’s lawsuit said that the committee subpoena against him was “unlawful and unenforceable,” and that the grand jury subpoena was the “fruit of the poisonous tree.”
According to Politico, Navarro plans to file his lawsuit on Tuesday morning.
“Each of the issues raised in the lawsuit — which took several months to prepare – are ripe for the judiciary to address; I find it my duty to raise these issues now rather than submit to the coercion of a kangaroo committee,” Navarro told USA Today.
Navarro said he would represent himself in the case, citing his experience with a doctorate in regulatory economics publishing articles in law journals, the outlet reported.
When asked by The New York Times if he would comply with the grand jury subpoena and testify on Thursday, he responded with: “TBD.”
The draft of Navarro’s lawsuit said that he would testify only if he were authorized to do so by Trump. It also asked that Graves — the US Attorney and one of the people whom the suit is filed against — negotiate this directly with Trump, calling it the less “burdensome” alternative.
Navarro’s lawsuit also denounced President Joe Biden’s waiving of Trump’s executive privilege over records related to the Capitol riot. It said neither he nor Biden had the right to impose such a waiver.
The former Trump aide had originally been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee for his testimony on a strategy called the “Green Bay Sweep,” which was supposed to delay the certification of Biden’s 2020 election victory so the election could be investigated for fraud and irregularities.
Navarro was one of those who backed the plan, according to his book “In Trump Time,” per USA Today. In the book, he called the idea the “last, best chance to snatch a stolen election from the Democrats’ jaws of deceit,” the outlet reported.
During his time serving under Trump, Navarro helped work on trade policies and the US’ pandemic response.
A grand jury subpoena sent to Navarro would be the first such court order related to the January 6 attack issued to Trump’s circle, according to The Times. Ali Alexander, a key organizer in the “Stop the Steal” movement, was also served a federal grand jury subpoena in April and said he would cooperate with the probe.
At least 846 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol riot so far.
